Process of treating alcoholic beverages by vapor-arbitrated pervaporation

ABSTRACT

The method and apparatus of the present invention has general applicability to the manipulation of the concentration, by partial depletion or enrichment, of one or more volatile components in a given liquid while leaving the other volatile components in the liquid in a substantially undisturbed or unadulterated state.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation-in-part of applicants' priorco-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 07/382,615, filed July 19, 1989,now pending which is a division of applicants' prior U.S. applicationSer. No. 07/296,255, filed Jan. 12, 1989, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,933,198which, in turn, is a continuation-in-part of applicants' prior U.S.application Ser. No. 897,489, filed Aug. 18, 1986, now U.S. Pat. No.4,816,407, which is a division of applicants' prior U.S. applicationSer. No. 786,787, filed Oct. 11, 1985, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,778,688, thedisclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein in theirentirety.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Field of the Invention

2. Background of the Invention

2.1 Alcohol Reduction

2.1.1 Fermentation Control Methods

2.1.2 Evaporation Methods

2.1.3 Membrane Distillation Methods

2.1.4 Pressure-Driven Methods

2.1.5 Solvent Extraction and Membrane Extraction Methods

2.1.6 Conventional Pervaporation Methods

2.2 Enrichment of Alcohol and/or Flavor and Aroma

3. Summary of the Invention

4. Brief Description of the Figures

5. Detailed Description of the Invention

5.1 Alcohol Reduction

5.1.1 Vapor-Swept Systems

5.1.2 Vacuum Systems

5.2 Alcohol Enrichment

5.2.1 Vapor-Swept Systems

5.2.2 Vacuum Systems

5.3 Flavor and Aroma Enrichment

5.3.1 Vapor-Swept Systems

5.3.2 Vacuum Systems

5.4 Vapor Arbitration for Components Other Than Ethanol and Water

5.5 Membranes

6.1 Example Nos. 1-2

6.2 Example Nos. 3-4

6.3 Example Nos. 5

6.4 Example Nos. 6-7

6.5 Example No. 8

6.6 Example No. 9

1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to novel methods and apparatus for manipulatingthe concentration of volatile components in a liquid, in particular theethanol content in alcoholic beverages such as wines, distilled spirits,beers, and sparkling wines etc. by selectively removing at least onepreselected member of a plurality of volatile components present in theliquid while a substantial portion of the remaining members of theplurality of volatile components is retained in the liquid. The presentmethod and apparatus allows for the selective removal of, for example,water, ethanol, or the simultaneous removal of water and ethanol, in anydesired proportion, including that which corresponds to the ethanolconcentration of the original beverage. In each case, ingredients someof which are volatile, that contribute to the flavor, aroma, body andeven color of the starting liquid are substantially retained in theproduct liquid or beverage. In the examples, above, the resultingbeverages thus become, respectively, alcohol-reduced, alcohol-enriched,or unaltered in alcohol content but enhanced in flavor and aromaconsequent to the volume decrease in the beverage. The process of thisinvention, referred to as vapor-arbitrated pervaporation (VAP), iscapable of accomplishing such diverse objectives depending on the chosenprocess conditions.

In short, the invention has general applicability to the manipulation ofthe concentration, by partial depletion of one or more volatilecomponents in a given liquid while leaving the other volatile componentsin the liquid in an enriched, but otherwise substantially undisturbed orunadulterated, state.

2. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Water and ethanol are the major components in alcoholic beverages.Typically, multiple minor components are also present that areresponsible for the characteristic flavor and aroma of the beverages;these minor components are sometimes referred to collectively ascongeners. There have been many attempts to process the beveragesfurther after they are produced. Such processing may be aimed atdecreasing the ethanol content to obtain low-alcohol beverages.Alternatively, another objective might be to increase the ethanolcontent of the beverage. Yet another objective is to enhance theintensity of the beverages by increasing the concentration of thecongeners. In cases where the objective is to adjust the alcohol contentof the beverage, it is desirable to retain as much of the flavor andaroma compounds as possible in order that the character of the beverageremains substantially unchanged. Before discovery of the presentinvention, however, none of the above-stated objectives was possiblewithout the loss of significant amounts of native volatile components,including water, alcohol and congeners during the implementation of aprocess intended to reduce the presence of one of these volatilecomponents.

2.1 ALCOHOL REDUCTION

Much of the further processing performed on marketable alcoholicbeverages are aimed at alcohol reduction. This is due, in part, to thedeveloping trend toward beverages of lower alcohol content indicatingthe public's increasing health-consciousness and to the social andlegislative initiatives against alcohol abuse, including drunk driving.Changes in demographics and consumer preferences have also led to thecontraction of some segments of the liquor and spirits business.

In response, makers of alcoholic beverages have introduced somelow-alcohol versions of their products to the market. These products aremade either by altering the fermentation process to generate lessethanol, or by treating conventionally made beverages to remove part oftheir alcohol content. However, most consumers have found suchlow-alcohol beverages to be of inferior quality and taste compared withtheir normal-alcohol-content counterparts. The need exists, therefore,for improved technologies capable of reducing alcohol contenteffectively while preserving the character of the original beverage.

2.1.1 FERMENTATION CONTROL METHODS

A variety of methods are known for controlling the ethanol contentduring the fermentation stage of the beverage production process. Someinvolve decreasing the quantity of carbohydrates available to thefermentation microbes for conversion into ethanol. For example, Lang etal., in European Patent No. 177,282, separated a fruit juice into ahigh-sugar fraction and a low-sugar fraction, fermenting only thelatter, and returned some of the volatile components from a distillateof the high-sugar fraction. Villettaz, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,675,191,enzymatically oxidized part of the glucose in grape juice prior tofermentation. Roquette, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,680,180, replaced a portionof the malt used to make beer by a hydrogenated starch hydrolyzate.Other methods involve altering the yeast used for fermentation. Forexample, Dziondziak, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,814,188, produced low-alcoholbeer by conducting fermentation with an alcohol dehydrogenase-negativeyeast mutant incapable of forming ethanol but capable of formingglycerol, then blended the product with normally produced beer. In apatent assigned to Soken, K. K., Japan Patent No. 60-186273, rice maltwas fermented with wine yeast to make a low-alcohol sake. Forrest etal., as described in British Patent No. 2,181,450, utilized alphaamylase instead of beta amylase to make low alcohol beer.

Common to these methods is the altered composition of the fermentationproduct compared with that yielded by traditional fermentationtechniques. This typically results in discernible differences in theorganoleptic qualities of the products.

2.1.2 EVAPORATION METHODS

Excess alcohol may also be removed from a beverage by evaporation. Forexample, light beer may be produced by boiling regular beer for a numberof hours to drive off much of the alcohol. Hoynup, "Beer," inKirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, Vol. 3, pp. 692-735(3rd Ed. 1978). Such protracted heating of wine would degrade many ofthe constituents that contribute to its flavor, color, and bouquet. Withbeer, flavor that is lost by boiling may be restored to some degree bythe addition of aroma substances recovered from yeast (German Patent No.1,767,040). However, there exists no such remedy for restoring theflavor of thermally damaged wine.

Boiling the beverage also causes a substantial loss of water. That waterloss poses no problem for beer because it can simply be reconstituted bythe addition of replacement water. Dilution of wine with make-up water,however, is restricted or prohibited by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol,Tobacco, and Firearms and in most foreign countries. See, 49 Fed. Reg.37510-37530, (Sept. 24, 1984). Other methods for producing low-alcoholbeer that also cause the removal of water, such as vacuum distillationand reverse osmosis, may likewise not be applicable to wine because ofthis and similar regulations. Where the ethanol content of distilledspirits such as whiskies is reduced by dilution with water, the productmust be labeled as "diluted," making it undesirable from a marketingstandpoint.

Efforts have been made to produce low ethanol wine through flashevaporation (Boucher, U.S. Pat. No. 4,405,652). The beverage was heatedand passed rapidly through a centrifugal evaporator under partial vacuumwhere the ethanol was vaporized and removed. Other evaporative processeshave been proposed for alcohol reduction. For example, Hurley, BritishPatent No. 2,084,607, described steam stripping of wines, cider, or beerunder partial vacuum and temperatures up to 60° C. Boch et al., inGerman Patent No. 3,506,820, applied a vacuum distillation process forremoval of ethanol from sparkling wines. The main drawback of theseprocesses is that they do not discriminate between ethanol and othervolatile components in the beverage in particular; in particular, aromacomponents are depleted together with the ethanol. In addition, evenbrief exposure of wines to high temperatures can degrade certain flavorand aroma components or caramelize sugars in those beverages. Theresultant burnt taste can be distinct, objectionable, and difficult tomask by blending with other beverage ingredients.

2.1.3 MEMBRANE DISTILLATION METHODS

The technique of membrane distillation involves separating volatilecomponents from a liquid into a gaseous extraction media through amicroporous membrane. The membrane impedes passage of liquid but notvapor, and functions essentially as a phase separator which does notimpart any permselectivity. As such, the degree of ethanol reductionmade possible by this technique is governed by the state of vapor-liquidequilibrium which exists in the absence of the membrane. In a variationof the membrane distillation technique, Japan Patent No. 01-023882,issued to Japan Organo K.K., an ethanol-absorbing solution was deployedon the side of the membrane opposite the beverage to receive thevaporized alcohol. Here, too, removal of other volatile substances waspossible to the same extent as that found with other evaporative methodsdescribed supra. Although applicable to the dealcoholization of beer,where a larger part of the organoleptic quality is associated with tastethan with aroma, the same processing method would have much less utilityin treating wines or distilled spirits in which aromatic components playmuch more important roles in establishing the character and body ofthose beverages. A further drawback of this technique is thatmicroporous membranes, including hydrophobic ones made fromfluoropolymers, may be wetted through at the high alcohol concentrationstypically found in distilled spirits. When this occurs, the ability ofthe membranes to separate the beverage from the ethanol-absorbing liquidis lost.

2.1.4 PRESSURE-DRIVEN METHODS

Reverse osmosis is a pressure-driven membrane process usually operatingat ambient or sub-ambient temperatures that has been used commerciallyfor alcohol reduction of beverages. Alcohol removal is achieved bysimultaneous removal of ethanol and water by pressurizing the beverageagainst a membrane with limited ethanol/water selectivity (Bui et al.,1986, Am. J. Enol. Vitic., 37: 297, and Light et al., 1985, AIChE Symp.Ser. 250, No. 82, Recent Advances in Separation Techniques and Light, inU.S. Pat. No. 4,617,127). To compensate for the water loss, the beverageis diluted with water prior to alcohol reduction, or water could beadded to the concentrated product after processing to replace the volumeoriginally occupied by ethanol and water. Either approach involvedexchanging part or most of the native water contained in the beverage.Loss of volatile flavor components is frequently observed when water isremoved together with ethanol from the beverage. This phenomenon may beexplained on the basis of "flow-coupling," where the passage of onepermeant is coupled with the direction and rate of diffusion of anotherpermeant. Alcohol reduction processes requiring water exchange oralternative means of reconstitution can thus be expected to alter theflavor/aroma profiles and lead to anomalous organoleptic qualities inthe beverage. Another consideration is that the water used forpre-dilution or reconstitution must be thoroughly purified so as tominimize introduction of foreign materials or impurities into thebeverage. The resource needs associated with generating a high qualitywater supply can be substantial.

Recent developments in reverse osmosis are aimed at solving some ofthese problems. Dick et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,806,366, used two coupledreverse osmosis systems to convert wine into fractions of high and lowalcohol content. Two membranes exhibiting substantially differentethanol permeabilities were used to generate two separate permeatestreams of higher alcohol content and lower alcohol content comparedwith the original beverage. In a complex cross feedback scheme, thepermeate stream from each reverse osmosis system was recycled to thefeed stream of the other reverse osmosis system, while the retentatestreams were removed as product. There was no net loss of water orethanol from the process; the two membranes with their differentethanol/water selectivities served to distribute the ethanol unevenlyinto the two retentate product streams. In principle, this should resultin an alcohol-reduced beverage and an alcohol-enriched beveragecontaining all of the ingredients of the starting beverage. In practice,however, there are major limitations to the implementation of thisconcept. For efficient operation, for example, the alcohol reductionpart of the process should be equipped with a membrane that is virtuallyimpermeable to ethanol and yet insufficiently permeable to water toachieve reasonable fluxes. Very few membranes possess such properties.Even membranes considered selective for separating ethanol from waterseldom exhibit ethanol rejections above 90%, particularly at moderate tohigh feed concentrations. (Rejection is a common measure of selectivityof a reverse osmosis membrane, defined as ((C_(f) -C_(p))/C_(f)).sup..100%, where C_(f) and C_(p) are the steady-state solute concentrationsin the feed and in the permeate, respectively.) The ethanol-impermeablemembrane, cited as an example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,806,366, showed only a50% ethanol rejection toward a 2 vol% ethanol feed at 50 to 60 barapplied pressure. This level of selectivity can be expected to decreaseat the higher alcohol concentrations more representative of wines, i.e.10 to 14 vol%, and likely becoming non-selective at the 40 vol% orhigher alcohol concentrations found in distilled spirits. Managing theinteraction between the two reverse osmosis systems and matching theoperating conditions to the characteristics of each membrane also add tothe complexity of this process.

More recently, Weiss, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,812,232, described an alternatehybrid reverse osmosis/distillation process for alcohol reduction.Permeate generated by reverse osmosis treatment of a feed wine wasvacuum distilled to separate ethanol from the water, which was recycledto the feed beverage. Water obtained by vacuum distilling an additionalquantity of wine was also used to replace the volume lost during alcoholreduction. The advantage of this process is that only water nativelypresent in the wine is used for reconstitution. However, a relativelylarge quantity of permeate has to be distilled and the need to installand operate two vacuum distillation units significantly adds to theoverall processing cost of alcohol reduction.

2.1.5 SOLVENT EXTRACTION AND MEMBRANE EXTRACTION METHODS

Conventional solvent extraction technology has long been applied to therecovery of ethanol from aqueous solutions in industry (Schiebel, 1950,Industrial & Engineering Chemistry 42: 1497-1508). This technology,however, is not directly applicable to the production of low-alcoholwines or other beverages. There would invariably be excessive solubilityof the extraction solvent in the wine and, hence, contamination.Emulsification and physical entrainment might also occur (Hartline,1979, Science 206: 41-42). Furthermore, with most extraction solvents itis expected that numerous other organic constituents of the wine orother alcoholic beverage would be coextracted along with the ethanol,thereby creating a wholly unacceptable product.

Membrane extraction, in which a membrane is interposed between a solventcontaining a solute to be extracted and a second, immiscible extractionsolvent, prevents the solvent entrainment and emulsion formationproblems inherent to conventional solvent extraction technology. Forexample, Kim, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,443,414, used a microporous membrane toextract molybdenum from solutions containing molybdenum and othermineral ions. Lee et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 3,956,112, described amembrane solvent extraction system for general application based uponthe use of a non-porous membrane. The membrane was solvent-swollen, sothat one of two substantially immiscible liquids which the membraneseparated caused the membrane to swell, forming an intermediary zonethrough which diffusion of solute material could occur. Ho et al., inU.S. Pat. No. 3,957,504, used an ion-exchange membrane in the manner ofLee et al. to recover metal ions from an aqueous solution.

Because the above membrane solvent extraction systems involve the use ofsolvent-swollen membranes, they do not prevent the molecular diffusionof dissolved solvent into the aqueous phase. Furthermore, the membranesof the prior systems show no permselectivity for the solutes to beremoved. Instead, any observed selectivity is due to the choice of theextraction solvent or to the inclusion of chelating agents in thesolvent that are selective for the metal ions that are to be extracted.Finally, the organic extraction solvents employed by Ho et al., and Leeet al. would be quite unsuitable for the production of beverages such aslow-alcohol wines, distilled spirits, and beers for the reason that evenminor amounts of these solvents, when dissolved in the aqueous phase,would represent sometimes toxic and invariably unacceptable contaminantsor adulterants in the beverage.

To avoid using solvents, Tilgner et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 4,664,918,used alcohol-free fruit drinks or alcohol-reduced fermented drinks asethanol extractants in a dialysis process. While ethanol can be removedeffectively this way, the drinks used as dialyzing solution may containcomponents that are not part of the beverage whose alcohol content is tobe reduced. Diffusion of such substances into the beverage can alter itsorganoleptic profile. Furthermore, water can permeate freely across themembrane because both the beverage and the dialyzing drink are aqueous.Unless the osmolality of the two phases are critically balanced, thebeverage may experience a net gain or loss of its water content.

Much of the objections to conventional solvent extraction orsolvent-swollen membrane extraction can be overcome by the processesdescribed by Matson, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,778,688, in which semipermeablemembranes and extraction fluids were used to extract ethanol selectivelyfrom alcoholic beverages, while leaving substantially intact thecomplement of other organic constituents that contribute to the color,aroma, and taste of the beverage. Suitable extraction fluids arenon-toxic, water-immiscible organic solvents or aqueous solutions oflow-molecular-weight but membrane-impermeable solutes. Since theextraction fluid does not absorb water to an appreciable extent,virtually all of the water natively present in the beverage ispreserved, and the beverage produced in this manner is superior to thoseby other approaches. However, diffusional transfer of ethanol from thebeverage through the membrane into a liquid extraction fluid can berelatively slow if that fluid is more viscous than the beverage. Thisslow rate can result in low productivity and high costs. Juxtaposing theliquid extraction fluid and the beverage across the membrane also posesthe risk that the liquid extractant may enter the beverage if defectsdevelop in the membrane or membrane device, or in the event of membranefailure. Hence product contamination remains a possibility.

2.1.6 CONVENTIONAL PERVAPORATION METHODS

Removal of the liquid extractant from the permeate side of the membranesolves the problem of product contamination due to liquid extractantintrusion. This condition is met by pervaporation processes.Pervaporation can best be described as membrane-mediated evaporation.Mulder et al., 1983, J. Membrane Sci. 16: 269-284; and Neel et al.,1985, Desalination 53: 297-326. A beverage solution is fed to one sideof a membrane. Selected volatile components in the beverage solutiondiffuse across the membrane to the permeate side which is evacuated orcontinuously swept with an inert, non-condensable gas stream. Thevolatile components are thus removed by evaporation. Selectivity inpervaporation is governed by the permselectivity of the membrane and notthe relative volatility of the components, in contrast to evaporative ormembrane distillation processes. For this reason, pervaporation canaccomplish selective removal of ethanol over other volatile componentsif a membrane permselective toward ethanol is used. In conventionalimplementations of pervaporation, a hydrophobic membrane with low waterpermeability is used to limit water loss. The result is significant lossof non-polar volatile components because of their solubility in, andability to permeate across, the similarly non-polar polymer membrane.Using a hydrophilic membrane instead of a hydrophobic membrane helpspreserve those non-polar components in the feed beverage, but theconsequent water loss would introduce problems similar to those withreverse osmosis, i.e., the need to exchange part or most of the nativewater in the beverage. Generally speaking, membrane materials with goodethanol permeability also exhibit some water permeability because of thechemical similarities between the two components; the water-barrierproperty of such membranes is necessarily compromised. For thesereasons, beverages produced via conventional pervaporation arecharacterized by low quality.

The behavior of typical vacuum-based pervaporation systems specificallyoperated for alcohol reduction illustrate these trade-offs. Bruschke etal., European Patent Application No. 332,738, Oct. 7, 1988; andEscoudier, J. L. and M. Le Bouar, "Application and Evaluation ofPervaporation for the Production of Low Alcohol Wines," Proceedings ofthe Third International Conference on Pervaporation Processes in theChemical Industry, Nancy, France, Sept. 19-22, 1988. As reported byEscoudier et al., water, ethanol, and volatile components were removedfrom the wine being treated. A relatively hydrophobic membrane morepermeable to ethanol than to water was employed to reduce water lossfrom the beverage. However, volatile components were significantlydepleted because the ethanol-selective membrane was also quite permeableto those components. Additional process steps were necessary to trapthose volatile compounds, separate them by distillation from ethanol,and return them to the beverage to remedy the degraded quality. Theethanol-selective membrane used was still water-permeable to the extentthat 30 to 40% of the native water in the beverage was lost and had tobe replaced with process water.

Therefore there remains a great need for a method which provides for theremoval of ethanol or other preselected low-molecular-weight organicsolutes from aqueous solutions of these solutes--and in particular, fromalcoholic beverages, which method can be characterized as follows:

(1) Ethanol should be removed as selectively as possible, i.e. withminimal simultaneous removal of water.

(2) Ethanol should be removed in such a way that addition of water to orremoval of water from the product is avoided.

(3) Most organic compounds present in the beverage other than ethanolshould be retained in the beverage during ethanol removal to thegreatest degree possible.

(4) Product contamination is minimized or eliminated altogether.

2.2 ENRICHMENT OF ALCOHOL AND/OR FLAVOR AND AROMA

Alcoholic beverages are concentrated and enriched for a variety ofreasons. For example, Galzy et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 4,610,887, usedreverse osmosis to remove water from wines and fermented juices toincrease the concentration of the beverage ingredients. Membranesexhibiting good retention of ethanol and other organic compounds withmolecular weights below 200 daltons were specified for this process tominimize loss of those organic compounds. In another instance, Bonnome,in U.S. Pat. No. 4,532,140, described the following two-step procedureto prepare an alcohol-enriched, flavored beverage for direct consumptionor as a means of reducing the cost of transportation. A portion of waterand ethanol from the beverage was first removed by means of reverseosmosis or ultrafiltration to yield a flavor concentrate liquid. Theethanol in the permeate stream was then isolated, by means of a secondreverse osmosis stage, and returned to the concentrated flavor liquid.In this process, different membranes are thus required to generate theflavor concentrate liquid and to separate ethanol from water because ofthe different ethanol permeation/retention properties needed at eachstep. In cases where reducing transportation cost is the objective, thebeverage concentrate would eventually be reconstituted to its originalvolume by adding water. In yet another process disclosed by Fricker inEuropean Patent No. 116,462, alcoholic beverages were concentrated bycombining reverse osmosis and distillation methods. The reverse osmosisportion of this process concentrated the flavor compounds while allowingpartial passage of water, ethanol, and some of the volatile flavorcomponents from the beverage into the permeate stream. Alcohol andvolatile flavor components were then recovered by distilling thepermeate and returned to the beverage concentrate. Again, this procedureis aimed at reducing the volume, and hence the transportation cost, ofbeverages such as beer, wine, cider, etc. whose principal constituent iswater. Frequently, however, concentration or enrichment is performed asan intermediate step in a dealcoholization process. Dikansky et al., inFrench Patent 2,620,129, described a process which is typical of thisapproach. An alcoholic beverage was processed by reverse osmosis toremove the water and ethanol as permeate from the other beveragecomponents retained in a substantially reduced volume concentrate. Waterwas then added to the resultant concentrate of beverage components,while reverse osmosis processing continued, so that the ethanolremaining in the concentrate was gradually removed. Similarly, KirinBrewery KK and Kurita Water Industries KK, Japan Patent No. 61-119180,described a method for producing a beer concentrate by reverse osmosis,which concentrate was then reconstituted with water to produce alow-alcohol beer.

The processes described above are limited in their ability to producehigh quality alcoholic beverage concentrates because they cannoteffectively reduce beverage volume via water removal while substantiallyretaining all of the ethanol and flavor components. In the case of theprocess described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,610,887, the need to retain as muchethanol as possible in the feed beverage demands the use of a membranewhose ethanol-water selectivity is very high. Unfortunately, fewexisting membranes are sufficiently retentive toward ethanol to preventsome loss of that alcohol to the permeate stream. This poor selectivityis not surprising considering the similarity in molecular size,polarity, and chemical nature between water and ethanol. Furthermore,rejection generally decreases with increasing ethanol concentration inthe feed solution, as mentioned previously, implying that the rate ofethanol loss through the membrane will accelerate as feed or beverageconcentration progresses. This typical behavior of reverse osmosismembranes also limits the usefulness of the method described in U.S.Pat. No. 4,532,140, in which the second reverse osmosis stage is reliedupon to separate ethanol cleanly from water. As for the method disclosedin EP 116,462, while it is possible to achieve good recovery of ethanoland volatile compounds by distilling the permeate solution obtained fromthe reverse osmosis step, the application of heat is known to changecertain flavor and aroma compounds irreversibly and undesirably.Therefore, there continues to be a need for a method of concentratingalcoholic beverages that is capable of preserving the maximum amount ofthe original components--and hence character--of the beverage.

While the known processes cited supra utilize reverse osmosis toseparate water from ethanol and the flavor compounds, or of separatingwater and ethanol from the flavor compounds, other membrane processessuch as pervaporation may serve similar purposes. In all cases, however,the lack of sufficient membrane selectivity limits the degree offlavor/aroma enrichment possible.

Another significant consequence of the limited ethanol-water selectivityof existing membranes and membrane processing techniques is the hithertoabsence of a method of obtaining an alcohol-enriched beverage by way ofselectively removing a portion of the water from the beverage whileretaining substantially all of the ethanol in the original beverage."Fortified" wines and other drinks with higher than usual ethanolconcentrations are conventionally made by simply adding ethanol orblending with materials of higher alcohol content. The increase involume actually decreases the concentration of other flavor and aromacomponents in the beverage, which invariably becomes less intense incharacter despite its higher alcohol level.

Therefore there remains a need to provide for the removal of water, andother solvents from solutions containing those solvents--and inparticular from alcoholic beverages--utilizing a process having thefollowing characteristics:

(1) Water should be removed as selectively as possible, i.e. withminimal simultaneous removal of ethanol.

(2) Water should be removed in such a way that most organic compoundspresent in the beverage should be retained in the beverage to thegreatest extent during water removal.

Still another need which remains unfulfilled involves a process whichallows the simultaneous removal of water and ethanol from a beverage, ortwo preselected volatile components from a solution containing thosecomponents--and in particular from alcoholic beverages--which processmay be characterized by the following:

(1) Water and ethanol should be removed in any proportion desired, andin particular in the same proportion corresponding to that present inthe original beverage.

(2) The water-alcohol mixture should be removed in such a way that mostorganic compounds present in the beverage are retained in the beverageto the greatest extent during removal of those two components.

3. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Method and apparatus are disclosed for manipulating the ethanol contentin alcoholic beverages by selectively removing water, selectivelyremoving ethanol, or by simultaneously removing water and ethanol in anydesired proportion. In each case, minor components which contribute tothe flavor and aroma of the beverages are substantially retained in theproduct beverage The apparatus and process of the invention, referred toas vapor-arbitrated pervaporation, is capable of accomplishing the abovediverse objectives when carried out under different conditions.Vapor-arbitrated pervaporation is a membrane process in which one sideof a semipermeable membrane is in contact with a feed liquid containingone or more volatile substances, and the second side of the membrane isexposed either to a sweep gas stream comprising a non-condensable gasand a regulated quantity of one of the said volatile substances, or to apartial vacuum containing a regulated quantity of one of the saidvolatile substances. More generally, the invention can be used to adjustthe concentration of one or more volatile components in a given solutionto any desired level.

In one embodiment of the present invention low-alcohol beverages areproduced by a process involving the extraction of ethanol through asemipermeable membrane with the aid of an ethanol-recovery extractionfluid capable of absorbing permeated ethanol as it issues from themembrane while neither absorbing water from the beverage norcontributing additional water to the beverage. Additionally, the natureand properties of the membrane and/or extraction fluid are chosen suchthat substantially all of the other desirable organic constituents orcongeners of the alcoholic beverage are not co-extracted simultaneouslywith the ethanol to an excessive degree. As a result, organicconstituents of the beverage are selectively retained, while the alcoholcontent of the beverage is selectively reduced. Thus, the finishedreduced-alcohol product retains the flavor of the original alcoholicbeverage but has an alcohol content that is up to about 97% lower thanthat of the starting material.

The present invention, in a specific embodiment, relates to a methodcomprising exposing one side of a membrane to a beverage and the otherside of the membrane to a gas-phase extraction fluid, and equalizing thewater activities in the beverage and throughout the gas-phase byadjusting the amount, pressure or temperature of the water vapor in thegas-phase extraction fluid. The process of this invention is referred toas vapor-arbitrated pervaporation. The membrane used in this inventionshould be selectively permeable to ethanol in preference to the flavor,aroma and color components in the beverage. The gas-phase extractionfluid may consist of a non-condensable gas and water vapor above, at ornear atmospheric pressure, or it may consist of a partial vacuum andwater vapor. The vapor may contain, or have added to it, other organicor inorganic materials. Under the prescribed conditions, ethanolpermeates from the beverage across the membrane into the gas-phase.Permeation of the flavor and aroma components is impeded by themembrane. Furthermore, the presence of sufficient water vapor in thegas-phase extraction fluid to provide a water activity approximatelyequal to that in the beverage inhibits water transport across themembrane, independent of the ethanol/water selectivity of the membrane.

In another embodiment of the present invention, ethanol-enrichedbeverages are produced by a process involving the extraction of waterthrough a semipermeable membrane in conjunction with a water-recoveryextraction fluid capable of absorbing permeated water as it issues fromthe membrane while neither absorbing ethanol from the beverage norcontributing additional ethanol to the beverage Additionally, the natureand properties of the membrane and/or extraction fluid are chosen suchthat substantially all of the other desirable organic constituents orcongeners of the alcoholic beverage are not co-extracted simultaneouslywith the water to an excessive degree. As a result, organic constituentsof the beverage are selectively retained, while the water content of thebeverage is selectively reduced. The finished reduced-water product thusretains the flavor of the original alcoholic beverage, indeed has anenhanced flavor thereover, but has a water content that is up to about95% lower than that of the starting material. Also, this reduced-waterproduct necessarily has a higher alcohol content than the original feedbeverage.

The present invention in a specific embodiment relates to a methodcomprising exposing one side of a membrane to a beverage and the otherside of the membrane to a gas-phase extraction fluid, and equalizing theethanol activities in the beverage and throughout the gas-phase byadjusting the amount, pressure or temperature of the ethanol vapor inthe gas-phase extraction fluid. This related process of the presentinvention may also be referred to as vapor-arbitrated pervaporation. Themembrane used in this invention should be permeable to water selectivelyover the flavor and aroma components in the beverage. The gas-phaseextraction fluid may consist of a non-condensable gas and ethanol vaporabove, at or near atmospheric pressure, or it may consist of a partialvacuum and ethanol vapor. The vapor may contain, or have added to it,other organic or inorganic materials. Under the prescribed conditions,water permeates from the beverage across the membrane into thegas-phase. Permeation of the flavor and aroma components is impeded bythe membrane. Furthermore, the presence of sufficient ethanol vapor inthe gas-phase extraction fluid to provide an ethanol activityapproximately equal to that in the beverage inhibits ethanol transportacross the membrane, independent of the ethanol/water selectivity of themembrane

In yet another embodiment of the present invention a method is disclosedwhich pertains to the net reduction in the volume of the beverage withno significant change in its alcohol content. This process may beaccomplished through the use of membranes, chosen such that they arepoorly permeable to many of the desirable organic constituents orcongeners of the alcoholic beverage, in conjunction with gas-phaseextraction fluids capable of absorbing permeated water and permeatedethanol as they issue from the membrane. Moreover, by introducingethanol vapor and water vapor into the extraction fluid so that theconcentration ratio of ethanol and water complements the inherentselectivity ratio of the membrane, the concurrent removal of water andethanol from the beverage is realized in exactly the same proportion asthat present in the feed beverage. The product then has the same levelof alcohol as the original beverage, but is enriched in flavor and aromacomponents. The gas-phase extraction fluids may consist of anon-condensable gas, ethanol vapor, and water vapor at or nearatmospheric pressure, or it may consist of a partial vacuum, ethanolvapor, and water vapor. The methods of this invention offer a means toproduce flavor- and aroma-enriched beverages with alcohol contentssimilar to those of the beverages prior to processing.

Yet another embodiment of the present invention involves a method ofmanipulating the concentration of at least one preselected member of aplurality of volatile components present in a liquid comprising:

(a) providing a membrane having a feed side and a permeate side oppositesaid feed side, said membrane being permeable to at least onepreselected member of a plurality of volatile components present in agiven liquid;

(b) contacting said liquid against said feed side of said membrane;

(c) contacting a gas-phase extraction fluid against said permeate sideof said membrane, said extraction fluid comprising a vapor mixturecapable of arbitrating the pervaporation of said volatile componentssuch that a portion of said preselected member passes from said feedside of said membrane to said permeate side of said membrane and mixeswith said extraction fluid,

while a substantial proportion of the remaining members of saidplurality of volatile components is retained in said liquid on said feedside of said membrane; and

(d) allowing said liquid and said extraction fluid to remain in contactwith said feed side and said permeate side of said membrane,respectively, for a period of time sufficient to provide a second liquidon said feed side of said membrane in which the concentration of saidpreselected member has been manipulated to the desired level.

Yet another embodiment of the present invention involves a method ofreducing the concentration of native ethanol in an aqueous liquidcomprising:

(a) providing a membrane having a feed side and a permeate side oppositesaid feed side, said membrane being permeable to ethanol;

(b) contacting said liquid against said feed side of said membrane;

(c) contacting a gas-phase extraction fluid against said permeate sideof said membrane, said extraction fluid comprising a water vapor mixturecapable of arbitrating the pervaporation of said native water such thata portion of the ethanol present in said liquid passes from said feedside of said membrane to said permeate side of said membrane and mixeswith said extraction fluid,

while a substantial proportion of said native water is retained in saidliquid on said feed side of said membrane; and

(d) allowing said liquid and said extraction fluid to remain in contactwith said feed side and said permeate side of said membrane,respectively, for a period of time sufficient to provide a second liquidon said feed side of said membrane in which the concentration of saidnative ethanol has been reduced to the desired level.

Yet another embodiment of the present invention involves a method ofenriching the concentration of native ethanol in an aqueous liquidcomprising:

(a) providing a membrane having a feed side and a permeate side oppositesaid feed side, said membrane being permeable to water;

(b) contacting said liquid against said feed side of said membrane;

(c) contacting a gas-phase extraction fluid against said permeate sideof said membrane, said extraction fluid comprising an ethanol vapormixture capable of arbitrating the pervaporation of said native ethanolsuch that a portion of the water present in said liquid passes from saidfeed side of said membrane to said permeate side of said membrane andmixes with said extraction fluid,

while a substantial proportion of said native ethanol is retained insaid liquid on said feed side of said membrane; and

(d) allowing said liquid and said extraction fluid to remain in contactwith said feed side and said permeate side of said membrane,respectively, for a period of time sufficient to provide a second liquidon said feed side of said membrane in which the concentration of saidnative ethanol has been enriched to the desired level.

Yet another embodiment of the present invention involves a method ofreducing the volume of a liquid comprising at least two volatilesolvents, which method comprises:

(a) providing a membrane having a feed side and a permeate side oppositesaid feed side, said membrane being permeable to at least two volatilesolvents;

(b) contacting said liquid against said feed side of said membrane;

(c) contacting a gas-phase extraction fluid against said permeate sideof said membrane, said extraction fluid comprising a mixture of saidvolatile solvents such that a portion of the corresponding solventswhich are native to said liquid passes from said feed side of saidmembrane to said permeate side of said membrane at a preselected fluxratio and mixes with said extraction fluid,

such that the resultant volume-reduced liquid contains the desiredproportion of said native volatile solvents; and

(d) allowing said liquid and said extraction fluid to remain in contactwith said feed side and said permeate side of said membrane,respectively, for a period of time sufficient to provide a second liquidon said feed side of said membrane having a volume which has beenreduced to the desired level.

Yet another embodiment of the present invention involves a method ofreducing the volume of a liquid while substantially maintaining theinitial proportion of native ethanol and water in the liquid comprising:

(a) providing a membrane having a feed side and a permeate side oppositesaid feed side, said membrane being permeable to ethanol and water;

(b) contacting said liquid against said feed side of said membrane;

(c) contacting a gas-phase extraction fluid against said permeate sideof said membrane, said extraction fluid comprising a mixture of ethanoland water vapor in a predetermined ratio capable of arbitrating thepervaporation of said native ethanol and water such that a portion ofsaid native ethanol and water present in said liquid passes from saidfeed side of said membrane to said permeate side of said membrane, at anethanol flux to water flux ratio corresponding to the molar ratio ofethanol to water in said liquid, and mixes with said extraction fluid,

while the proportion of said native ethanol and water retained in saidliquid on said feed side of said membrane corresponds substantially tothe initial proportion present in said liquid; and

(d) allowing said liquid and said extraction fluid to remain in contactwith said feed side and said permeate side of said membrane,respectively, for a period of time sufficient to provide a second liquidon said feed side of said membrane having a volume which has beenreduced to the desired level.

Yet another embodiment of the present invention involves avapor-arbitrated pervaporation method of selectively reducing the amountof a first volatile component in a fluid mixture having at least twovolatile components independent of the permselectivity of a membraneutilized in said method against one or the other of said volatilecomponents comprising:

(a) providing a membrane having a feed side and a permeate side, saidmembrane being permeable to at least a first volatile component;

(b) contacting a fluid mixture containing said first volatile componentand at least a second volatile component against said feed side of saidmembrane;

(c) contacting a gas-phase extraction fluid against said permeate sideof said membrane, said extraction fluid comprising a mixture of acarrier gas and a sufficient amount of the vapor of said second volatilecomponent such that a portion of said first volatile component passesfrom the feed side of said membrane to the permeate side of saidmembrane and mixes with said extraction fluid,

while a substantial portion of said second volatile component isretained on the feed side of said membrane; and

(d) allowing said fluid mixture and said extraction fluid to remain incontact with the feed and permeate sides of said membrane, respectively,for a period of time sufficient to reduce the amount of said firstvolatile component in said fluid mixture to the desired level. In thisparticular embodiment the carrier gas is a non-condensable gas; i.e.,one which does not condense to a significant degree under conditionswhich are sufficient to condense the volatile components of interest insaid fluid mixture.

Yet another embodiment of the present invention involves an apparatusfor manipulating the concentration of at least one preselected member ofa plurality of volatile components present in a liquid comprising:

(a) a membrane having a feed side and a permeate said feed side, saidmembrane being permeable to at least one preselected member of aplurality of volatile components present in a given liquid;

(b) means for introducing said liquid against said feed side of saidmembrane;

(c) means for providing a gas-phase extraction fluid to said permeateside of said membrane, said extraction fluid comprising a vapor mixturecapable of arbitrating the pervaporation of said volatile componentssuch that a portion of said preselected member passes from said feedside of said membrane to said permeate side of said membrane and mixeswith said extraction fluid,

while a substantial proportion of the remaining members of saidplurality of volatile components is retained in said liquid on said feedside of said membrane; and

(d) means for regulating the composition, flow, temperature or pressureof said extraction fluid; and

(e) optional means for processing and recycling said extraction fluid,

such that a second liquid on said feed side of said membrane is providedin which the concentration of said preselected member has beenmanipulated to the desired level.

Other embodiments of the present invention will be apparent to thoseskilled in the art based upon the disclosure present herein. These andother like embodiments are considered to be within the scope and spiritof the present invention.

4. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

The present invention may be more readily understood by reference to thefollowing figures in which

FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of the principles of thevapor-arbitrated pervaporation process of the present invention duringwhich a liquid present on one side of a membrane in a liquid phasecontains at least two volatile components A and B, and on the other sideof membrane an extraction fluid, comprising a non-condensable gas and acontrolled amount of the vapor of component B, is present such that apotential for the net transport of component A from the liquid phase tothe vapor phase is obtained, while the potential for the net transportof component B from the liquid phase to the vapor phase is virtuallyeliminated. The liquid phase may be an alcoholic beverage.

FIG. 2 shows a plot of the relative humidity required to prevent watertransport across the membrane as a function of ethanol concentration (involume %) in the liquid phase.

FIG. 3 shows a plot of ethanol saturation ratio in the vapor streamrequired to balance the activity of ethanol in the beverage, as afunction of the concentration of ethanol (volume %) in the liquid phase.

FIG. 4 is a schematic representation of the basic membrane extractionalcohol reduction process, wherein an alcohol-containing beverage and anextraction fluid move, optionally but preferably in countercurrentfashion, on opposite sides of a permselective membrane, so that onlyethanol permeates into the extraction fluid.

FIG. 5 is a schematic representation of the basic vapor-arbitratedpervaporation process for the removal of ethanol from alcoholicbeverages wherein the water activity is equalized in the liquid phaseand gaseous phase by addition of water vapor to the gaseous phase.

FIG. 6 is a schematic representation of a vapor-arbitrated pervaporationprocess with feed- and permeate-side water activity equalization andethanol recovery.

FIG. 7 shows a schematic representation of a process whereby liquidwater entering a gas-liquid contactor is vaporized and blended with anon-condensable gas. Ethanol is recovered by using a condenser.

FIG. 8 shows a schematic representation of a process whereby steam ismixed with the non-condensable gas in a condenser to produce ahumidified exit gas stream. Ethanol is recovered with a condenser.

FIG. 9 shows a bench-scale apparatus for pervaporation removal ofethanol from beverages using a vapor-swept system.

FIG. 10 is a schematic representation of a prevaporation system withpermeate removal by vacuum and permeate-side water activity control.

FIG. 11 illustrates the basic vapor-arbitrated pervaporation process foralcohol enrichment.

FIG. 12 illustrates one embodiment of the process for alcohol enrichmentutilizing a vapor-swept system.

FIG. 13 illustrates a vapor-swept system incorporating means for ethanolvapor recycling.

FIG. 14 illustrates yet another embodiment of the ethanol vapormanagement scheme of the present invention.

FIG. 15 shows a schematic diagram of an alcohol enrichment process whichutilizes a vacuum system.

FIG. 16 illustrates the basic vapor-arbitrated pervaporation process forflavor and aroma enrichment of beverages.

FIG. 17 illustrates a typical process scheme for the vapor-sweptconfiguration useful for the dual vapor-arbitrated pervaporation processfor flavor and aroma enrichment.

FIG. 18 illustrates a particular embodiment of the alcohol-enrichmentaspect of the present invention.

5. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention pertains to the controlled manipulation of ethanolcontent in alcoholic beverages while simultaneously preserving theflavor and aroma contents originally present in the beverage. Suchmanipulation includes 1) selective removal of ethanol; 2) selectiveremoval of water; and 3) selective removal of ethanol and water at apreselected proportion. These manipulations are available in a class ofmembrane processes referred to as vapor-arbitrated pervaporation. Eachof the problems identified supra with existing technologies has beenaddressed and overcome by the processes described herein.

More generally, the present invention pertains to the separation of twovolatile components A and B present in a liquid phase by selectivelyremoving one of those components, say A, through a membrane into a gasphase while substantially retaining the other component, B, in theliquid phase. As a result, the liquid phase becomes partially depletedin component A. To the extent that removing A causes a decrease in thevolume of the liquid phase, the concentration of the retained componentB is increased, i.e. enriched, in the liquid phase. The presentinvention provides for equalizing the permeate-side activity ofcomponent B and the feed-side activity of component B in the liquidphase. In so doing, the driving force for diffusional transport of B isdiminished, and the need for replenishing component B at the end of theprocess is averted. This concept is illustrated in FIG. 1.

It should be noted that the terms "equalization" and "equalize" as usedherein to describe the relationship of activities of a given volatilecomponent on opposite sides of the membrane is meant to describe fourcases: (i) where the activities of a volatile component on oppositesides of the membrane are precisely identical; (ii) where the activitiesof a volatile component on opposite sides of the membrane areapproximately the same--i.e., not precisely equal, but roughly inbalance; (iii) where the activities of a volatile component on oppositesides of the membrane are not everywhere equal, but where the deviationsfrom equality of activities of that volatile component which exist atdifferent points along the membrane surface are largely compensatory(i.e., positive deviations being compensated for by negative deviations)with the result that there is little or no overall flux of that volatilecomponent into or from the liquid being treated; and (iv) where theactivities of a first volatile component on opposite sides of themembrane are not equal at all times during the process of removing asecond volatile component, but where the deviations from equality ofactivities of the first volatile component that exist at different timesare largely compensatory with the result that there is no overall fluxof the first component into or from the liquid being treated.

As these principles are applied to the treatment of alcoholic beverages,where water and ethanol may correspond interchangeably to the volatilecomponents A and B referred to supra, it is the quality of the treatedbeverage that is the ultimate determinant of how closely the ideal ofperfect equality of transmembrane activities of water or ethanol must beapproached in the practice of the process of this invention.

In order that there be no transport of one of the volatile componentsacross the membrane, the activities of that component in the liquid andgas-phase extraction fluid should be equivalent or balanced. In otherwords, there should be no driving force for, say, water in one directionor the other. For this balance to be achieved, the chemical potential ofwater in the liquid and gas-phase extraction fluid should be equivalent.(Smith, J. M. and H. C. Van Ness, Introduction to Chemical EngineeringThermodynamics, 4th ed., McGraw Hill, 1987). The chemical potential ofcomponent i may be defined as:

    μ.sub.i =RTlnf.sub.i +φ(T)                          (1)

where, R is the universal gas constant (82.06 mL-atm/°K.-mol), T istemperature (°K.), fi is the fugacity of species i and φ(T) is aconstant. The fugacity of a substance may be defined as the tendency ofa substance in the liquid phase to escape into the gaseous phase andvice versa. From equation (1), it follows that at a given temperature,the fugacity of component i in the liquid phase, f_(i),l should equalthe fugacity of component i in the gas phase, f_(i),g. Thus:

    f.sub.i,1 =γ.sub.i x.sub.i f.sub.i =f.sub.i,g =y.sub.i φ.sub.i P (2)

where,

γ_(i) =activity coefficient of i in the liquid

f_(i) =standard state fugacity of pure liquid i

x_(i) =mole fraction of i in the liquid phase

y_(i) =mole fraction of i in the vapor phase

φ_(i) =fugacity of saturated liquid or vapor i, and

P=total pressure.

It should be noted that the activity of a substance in the gases orliquid phase is the ratio of the fugacity of the substance at a giventemperature T to the fugacity of the substance in the standard state.Therefore, if the fugacity of component i in its liquid and gaseousstates are equivalent, then it follows that the activities are alsoequivalent.

It can be shown that:

    f.sub.i =φ.sub.i,sat P.sub.i,sat exp[V.sub.i,1 (P-P.sub.i,sat)/RT](3)

where,

φ_(i),sat =fugacity of saturated liquid or vapor i

P_(i),sat =saturation pressure of component i at temperature T, and

V_(i),1 =molar volume of liquid component i.

At low pressures, the vapor phase behaves as an ideal gas for which

    φ.sub.i =φ.sub.i,sat =1                            (4)

and the Poynting factor represented by the exponential term in equation(3) is close to unity. Thus equation (2) simplifies to

    γ.sub.i x.sub.i P.sub.i,sat y.sub.i P                (5)

or

    y.sub.i =γ.sub.i x.sub.i P.sub.i,sat/ P              (6)

The activity coefficient, γ_(i), can be obtained from experimentalmeasurements of partial pressures of component i over a mixture ofvolatile liquid components. If x_(i) and P are fixed, then y_(i), themole fraction of component i in the gas stream required to balance itschemical potential in the liquid (or to have zero component i transportacross the membrane) can be found from Equation (6).

For the manipulation of ethanol concentration in alcoholic beverages,two working relationships can be developed. To achieve alcoholreduction, it is necessary to equalize water activities on both sides ofthe membrane. The relationship between the relative humidity in thegas-phase and the mole fraction of water in the beverage at a giventemperature is:

    Relative humidity (%)=(y.sub.w P/P.sub.w,sat)×100.   (7)

Similarly, for the purpose of balancing the ethanol activities acrossthe membrane during alcohol enrichment, a saturation ratio term may bedefined as the ratio of ethanol partial pressure to the vapor pressureof ethanol at that temperature:

    Ethanol saturation ratio=(y.sub.e P/P.sub.e,sat)           (8)

The subscripts w and e in Equations (7) and (8) indicate water andethanol respectively.

The partial pressures of water and ethanol at various temperatures andcompositions are shown in Table I. From these experimental data and theequations supra, the relative humidity required for operatingvapor-arbitrated pervaporation in the alcohol reduction mode withoutwater loss has been calculated as a function of beverage alcohol contentas shown in FIG. 2. For example, the relative humidity required toprevent water transport across the membrane from a 40 vol % alcoholbeverage is about 85% at ambient temperature and pressure. Similarly,the relative ethanol pressure required for operating vapor-arbitratedpervaporation in the alcohol enrichment mode without ethanol loss isshown in FIG. 3. Beverage ethanol contents are shown in these figures invol %, the common units employed in the labeling of alcoholic beverages.

                  TABLE I                                                         ______________________________________                                        Partial Pressure of Water/Ethanol Mixtures as a                               Function of Temperature and Composition                                       Temperature (° C.)                                                     Ethanol 20        40        55      77                                        (wt. %) P.sub.w                                                                              P.sub.e                                                                              P.sub.w                                                                            P.sub.e                                                                            P.sub.w                                                                            P.sub.e                                                                            P.sub.w                                                                            P.sub.e                        ______________________________________                                         0      17.5    0.0   54.3  0.0 117.0                                                                               0.0 287.0                                                                               0.0                           10      16.8    6.7   51.6  26.9                                                                              110.7                                                                               59.3                                                                              276.0                                                                              144.0                          20      15.9   12.6   47.6  43.5                                                                              104.0                                                                               94.4                                                                              261.0                                                                              218.8                          30      15.1   17.1   46.2  54.7                                                                              100.5                                                                              114.8                                                                              254.0                                                                              269.2                          40      14.7   20.7   45.5  62.5                                                                               98.9                                                                              130.8                                                                              245.0                                                                              305.0                          50      14.5   23.5   44.6  68.3                                                                               97.3                                                                              142.6                                                                              241.0                                                                              336.0                          60      14.1   25.6   42.9  74.8                                                                               94.4                                                                              155.6                                                                              235.0                                                                              365.0                          70      13.1   28.0   40.5  82.8                                                                               89.1                                                                              172.6                                                                              224.0                                                                              405.0                          80      11.3   31.2   35.9  91.8                                                                               77.6                                                                              192.8                                                                              191.4                                                                              454.0                          90       7.5   35.8   24.7 106.4                                                                               52.5                                                                              223.9                                                                              130.3                                                                              527.0                          98       1.9   42.3    6.5 123.0                                                                               14.3                                                                              262.4                                                                               34.7                                                                              625.0                          100      0.0   43.6    0.0 134.0                                                                               0.0 283.0                                                                               0.0 667.0                          ______________________________________                                         P.sub.w and P.sub.e are in units of mm Hg.                               

5. ALCOHOL REDUCTION

Removal of ethanol by extraction in general is illustrated in FIG. 4. Asshown, a semipermeable membrane is interposed at the interface betweenthe alcoholic beverage that is to be processed and an appropriategaseous extraction fluid. Certain desirable organic components orcongeners of the beverage are unable to pass through the permselectivemembrane and into the extraction fluid; additionally, the extractionfluid itself itself may exhibit a degree of selectivity for thepreferential volatilization of ethanol over the other, desirable organiccomponents. In this manner, preferential removal of ethanol over otherdesirable organic solutes in the beverage is realized.

A second aspect of the invention is its ability to selectively removeethanol in preference to water. A distinguishing feature of thisinvention is that the membrane need not be selectively permeable toethanol over water. Indeed, the overall process can exhibit remarkableethanol removal selectivity, even when water would normally be capableof freely permeating the membrane along with ethanol. This performanceresults from the characteristics of the extraction fluid. In particular,the extraction fluid is chosen such that it does not absorb permeatedwater from the wine or other alcoholic beverage being treated, nor doesthe extraction fluid donate water to the alcoholic beverage.

The present invention provides a method for producing from a firstalcoholic beverage a second beverage of reduced alcoholic contentcomprising the steps:

providing a membrane which is alcohol permeable;

feeding a first alcoholic beverage

across a feed side of said membrane;

feeding a gas-phase extraction fluid across a permeate side of saidmembrane, said extraction fluid being alcohol absorbing, butsubstantially not water absorbing and said extraction fluid comprisingwater vapor in an amount sufficient to minimize the diffusion of waterfrom said first alcoholic beverage to said permeate side of saidmembrane by balancing the activity of water on said feed side of saidmembrane so as to evaporate into said gas-phase extraction fluid theportion of the alcohol initially present in said first alcoholicbeverage which has crossed to the permeate side of said membrane,thereby forming from said first alcoholic beverage a second beveragehaving reduced alcoholic content; and

withdrawing said gas-phase extraction fluid containing water vapor andalcohol from said permeate side of said membrane, whereby said secondbeverage having reduced alcoholic content is produced on said feed sideof said membrane.

The features of the process are depicted conceptually in FIG. 5. The useof a membrane that is more permeable to ethanol than to the congenersensures that most of the congeners will be retained in the beverageduring ethanol removal. The gas-phase extraction fluid may be maintainedin the gas-phase using either a non-condensable gas (e.g. air ornitrogen) or vacuum applied from a vacuum pump. The gas-phase extractionfluid further comprises water vapor to balance the water activities onthe permeate and feed sides of the membrane, as will be discussed infra.

The gas-phase extraction fluid may also comprise organic or inorganiccomponents so as to prevent the permeation of such components present inthe beverage across the membrane. These components may be naturally inthe extraction fluid or they may be added selectively hereto. Althoughthe present invention is primarily intended for ethanol removal frombeverages, the process concept described herein can be appliedgenerically to the selective removal of one or more volatile componentsfrom aqueous solutions while retaining other dissolved volatile andnon-volatile components.

Commercially available alcoholic beverages which include but are notlimited to beer, wine, and distilled spirits, have an initial ethanolcontent of from about 5 to about 75 volume %. Correspondingly, referringto FIG. 2, the relative humidity should be maintained at about 60 toabout 95% at about 5° C. to about 75° C. Specifically, if the alcoholicbeverage is a beer with an initial ethanol content of from about 5 toabout 10% by volume, the relative humidity should be maintained at about95% to about 100% at about 5° C. to about 75° C. If the alcoholicbeverage is a wine with an initial ethanol content from about 9 to about13% volume, the relative humidity should be maintained at about 85 to95% at about 5° to about 75° C. If the alcoholic beverage is a brandywith an initial ethanol content from about 35 to about 55 volume %, therelative humidity should be maintained at about 80 to 90% at about 20°to about 75° C. If the alcoholic beverage is a distilled spirit with aninitial ethanol content from about 50 to about 70 volume %, the relativehumidity should be maintained at about 75 to about 85% at about 20° C.to about 75° C. In some cases, processing temperatures below about 20°C. or above about 75° C. may be desirable. The same principle ofrelative humidity adjustment applies generally at those othertemperatures.

The alcoholic beverage may be processed at or near atmospheric pressure.For beers or sparkling wines, however, a slightly higher pressure mayalso be applied such that the carbon dioxide dissolved in thosebeverages is preserved during alcohol reduction treatment. The principleof vapor-arbitrated pervaporation remains generally applicable at thoseother pressures.

A variety of process schemes are possible for equalizing feed- andpermeate-side water activities in vapor-arbitrated pervaporation.

The invention also relates to an apparatus for producing from a firstalcoholic beverage a second beverage of reduced alcoholic contentcomprising

a membrane which is alcohol permeable;

means for feeding a first alcoholic beverage across a feed side of saidmembrane; and

means for providing a gas-phase extraction fluid to a permeate side ofsaid membrane;

means for regulating the relative humidity of said gas-phase extractionfluid on said permeate side of said membrane; and

whereby alcohol diffuses from the first beverage through the membraneinto said gas-phase extraction fluid to produce said second beverage onsaid feed side of said membrane having reduced alcohol content and agas-phase extraction fluid comprising water vapor and alcohol on saidpermeate side of said membrane. Particular embodiments of the technologyare described infra. It is assumed in all cases that relatively polar,hydrophilic membranes with good ethanol/congener selectivity are used.

Although the present invention is primarily intended for ethanol removalfrom beverages, the concept described herein can be applied genericallyto the selective removal of one or more volatile components from aqueoussolutions while retaining other dissolved components.

5 1.1 VAPOR-SWEPT SYSTEMS

A preferred vapor-swept pervaporation system embodying the wateractivity management concept is shown conceptually in FIG. 6. A membraneunit comprises two flow compartments, one on each side of the membrane15. Beverage 10 is fed to compartment A of the membrane unit, agas-phase extraction fluid 31 comprising a mixture of non-condensablegas (such as air or nitrogen) and water vapor is fed to the othercompartment B as a sweep stream. A feed subsystem regulates the deliveryrate and the temperature of the beverage; it also replenishes the latentheat of evaporation lost from the feed stream during ethanolpervaporation. A humidification subsystem is used to regulate thetemperature, relative humidity (and thus water activity), and flow rateof the sweep stream. The beverage emerges with a reduced alcoholiccontent 16. An alcohol recovery subsystem 39 separates the water andethanol 40 from the non-condensable gas 37 in the gas-phase extractionfluid that emerges 32. Provided that the sweep stream flow rate issufficiently high to prevent excess ethanol accumulation on the permeateside of the membrane, the pervaporation and purging actions willcontinue to sustain ethanol reduction. Another function of the sweepstream is to help supply part of the latent heat of ethanol evaporation.

Another preferred embodiment of the humidification subsystem is shown inFIG. 7. The beverage 10 is circulated via a pump 11 to compartment A ofthe membrane unit containing membrane 15. The beverage emerges with areduced alcoholic content 16. Liquid water 25 is vaporized with thenon-condensable gas 20 in a gas/liquid contactor 22 (e.g. a spray tower,packed column, etc.). Excess water may be removed via an outlet 24. Thetemperature T_(s) inside the contactor 22 (approximately equal to thatof the incoming water) is set to produce a water loading of the gaswhich, upon heating with a process heater 29 to the operatingtemperature T of the resulting gas-phase extraction fluid 31, will giveexactly the desired relative humidity. The process heater may be forexample a steam or electrical heater, a heat exchanger, or some otherheat source operated at a temperature sufficiently high to give thedesired relative humidity. The gas-phase extraction fluid that emergesfrom compartment B of the membrane unit, comprising noncondensable gas,water vapor, ethanol vapor, and other volatile organic components (e.g.congeners) 32 may be cooled with a condenser 35 and the liquifiedethanol solution 40 may be collected. The non-condensable gas, strippedof water and ethanol vapors, can be vented 37 via a valve 36 or recycled38 to the humidification system. Recycling is desirable in some cases.For example, nitrogen may be used as the noncondensable gas for thepurpose of minimizing oxidation of the beverage; but disposal of the gasafter a single pass through the membrane unit would be uneconomical.Another reason for recycling is to allow certain permeated congeners toaccumulate in the gas stream so as to deter further loss of thosecongeners from the beverage. Optionally, the temperature and flow rateof the incoming non-condensable gas stream may be adjusted so that thegas does not become saturated with water vapor in the liquid-gascontactor, rather, the exiting gas stream would have the requiredtemperature and relative humidity with no further heating or cooling.

A particularly preferred embodiment is shown in FIG. 8. As in FIG. 7,the beverage 10 is circulated via a pump 11 to compartment A of themembrane unit containing membrane 15. The beverage emerges with areduced alcoholic content 16. Steam 21 is mixed with the non-condensablegas 20 in a condenser 23 to produce a water-saturated gas-phaseextraction fluid at a temperature Ts. Excess water condensed from thesteam 24 is removed from the condenser 23. Again, the gas-phaseextraction fluid is heated to a preselected operating temperature with aprocess heater 29 to produce a gas-phase extraction fluid having thedesired relative humidity. Alternatively, direct injection of steam at aprecisely controlled rate into a pre-conditioned air stream is an evenmore preferable means of generating the desired humidified air sweepstream in a single step. The condenser 23 in this case would function asan optional mixing chamber for air and steam and the reheater 29 wouldbe used as a trim heater or trim cooler for optional final adjustment ofvapor stream temperature. As described for FIG. 7, the gas-phaseextraction fluid that emerges 32 from compartment B of the membrane maybe cooled with a condenser 35 and the liquified ethanol solution 40 maybe collected. The non-condensable gas may be vented 37 via a valve 36 orrecycled 38 to the humidification system.

In another preferred embodiment, as shown in FIG. 10, the alcoholicbeverage 10 is circulated with a pump 11 to compartment A of themembrane unit containing membrane 15. A process heater 12 may be used tomaintain the feed stream at an operating temperature T. A flowmeter 13may be used to monitor the flow rate of the beverage stream. Thegas-phase extraction fluid 31, supplied to compartment B of the membraneunit, may be produced by pumping air 20 through a separate column 22where it contacts water 25 heated with a process heater 27 at atemperature T_(s) to reach saturation. A flowmeter 21 may be used tomonitor the flow rate of the air, 20. A pump 26 may be used to controlthe flow rate of the water. Excess water may be removed via an outlet24. The saturated gas phase extraction fluid 28 may then be reheatedwith a process heater 29 to the operating temperature T to attain arelative humidity governed by the temperature rise (T-T_(s)). T_(s) maybe determined from a given T and the required relative humidity by usingthe procedure described in Section 5.1, Table I and FIG. 2. Equalizingthe temperature of the feed and sweep streams, although optional, mayhelp maintain a uniform relative humidity along the permeate side of themembrane by reducing transmembrane heat transfer beyond that associatedwith pervaporation of ethanol. The apparatus may be equipped with anautomatic humidity control system that monitors the relative humidity ofthe gas-phase extraction fluid 31 at the entrance to the membranemodule, and adjusts the saturation temperature T_(s) to compensate fordeviations from the relative humidity set point. The gas-phaseextraction fluid 32 exiting from the membrane module is sent to acondenser 35 where water and the pervaporated ethanol 40 are liquifiedand collected. A thin-film composite membrane comprising aninterfacially crosslinked polyurea membrane supported by an asymmetric,microporous polysulfone substrate is preferred. Such a membrane isdescribed further in Section 5.5, infra.

5.1.2 VACUUM SYSTEMS

A pervaporation system embodying the water-activity equalization conceptbut which uses vacuum to remove the permeate is depicted in FIG. 11.Beverage 10 is fed into compartment A of the membrane unit containingmembrane 15 via a pump 11 to produce a beverage of reduced alcoholiccontent 16. The inlet to the permeate side of the membrane unit isconnected to a water reservoir 25 equipped with a heater 27. CompartmentB of the membrane unit is connected, sequentially to a back-pressureregulator 34, a condenser 35, and a vacuum pump 41. This arrangement isused to regulate water vapor supply to the gas-phase extraction fluid 31entering the permeate side of the membrane while continuously removingthe pervaporated ethanol from the emerging gas-phase extraction fluid32. To obtain a water activity less than unity, the water vapor issupplied at a partial pressure lower than its vapor pressure at thattemperature. This step is accomplished by adjusting the back-pressureregulator 34 to open whenever the permeate-side pressure is in excess ofthe target partial pressure. Ethanol and water vapors released throughthe back-pressure regulator 34 may be condensed and recovered.

5.2 ALCOHOL ENRICHMENT

Alcohol-enriched beverages whose organoleptic quality significantlysurpasses those attainable by present means can be produced by theprocess described herein. Enrichment of ethanol through selectiveremoval of water is accomplished by placing the beverage, the membrane,and the vapor-phase extraction fluid in a spatial arrangement shown inFIG. 11, which is similar to that shown in FIG. 5 except that ethanolvapor instead of water vapor is supplied to the gas-phase sweep streamor partial vacuum. Under these conditions, permeate-side ethanolactivity in the gas-phase and the feed-side ethanol activity in theliquid phase are equalized, the driving force for diffusional ethanoltransport is nullified according to the mathematical relationships shownin Section 5, supra, and preferential removal of water over ethanolresults. The use of a membrane that is more permeable to water than tothe congeners ensures that most of the congeners will be retained in thebeverage during ethanol enrichment.

The present invention provides a method for producing from a firstalcoholic beverage a second beverage of increased alcoholic contentcomprising:

providing a membrane which is water permeable;

feeding a first alcoholic beverage across a feed side of said membrane;

feeding a gas-phase extraction fluid across a permeate side of saidmembrane, said extraction fluid being water absorbing, but substantiallynot ethanol absorbing and said extraction fluid comprising ethanol vaporin an amount sufficient to minimize the diffusion of ethanol from saidfirst alcoholic beverage to said permeate side of said membrane bybalancing the activity of ethanol on said feed side of said membrane soas to evaporate into said gas-phase extraction fluid the portion of thewater initially present in said first alcoholic beverage which hascrossed to the permeate side of said membrane, thereby forming from saidfirst alcoholic beverage a second beverage having increased alcoholiccontent; and

withdrawing said gas-phase extraction fluid containing ethanol vapor andwater from said permeate side of said membrane, whereby said secondbeverage having increased alcoholic content is produced on said feedside of said membrane.

The gas-phase extraction fluid may be maintained in the gas-phase usingeither a non-condensable gas (e.g. air or nitrogen) or vacuum appliedfrom a vacuum pump. The gas-phase extraction fluid further comprisesethanol vapor to balance the ethanol activities on the permeate and feedsides of the membrane, as will be discussed infra,

The gas-phase extraction fluid may also comprise organic or inorganiccomponents so as to prevent the permeation of such components present inthe beverage across the membrane. These components may be naturally inthe extraction fluid or they may be added selectively hereto. Althoughthe present invention is primarily intended for water removal frombeverages and the ethanol enrichment thereof, the process conceptdescribed herein can be applied generically to the selective removal ofone or more volatile components from aqueous solutions while retainingother dissolved components.

A variety of process schemes are possible for equalizing feed- andpermeate-side ethanol activities in vapor-arbitrated pervaporation.

The invention also relates to an apparatus for producing from a firstalcoholic beverage a second beverage of increased alcoholic contentcomprising

a membrane which is water permeable;

means for feeding a first alcoholic beverage across a feed side of saidmembrane; and

means for providing a gas-phase extraction fluid to a permeate side ofsaid membrane;

means for regulating the partial pressure of ethanol in the saidgas-phase extraction fluid on said permeate side of said membrane; and

whereby water diffuses from the first beverage through the membrane intosaid gas-phase extraction fluid to produce said second beverage on saidfeed side of said membrane having increased alcohol content and agas-phase extraction fluid comprising ethanol vapor and water vapor onsaid permeate side of said membrane. Particular embodiments of thetechnology are described infra. In all cases relatively polar,hydrophilic membranes with good water/congener selectivity are assumedto be used.

Such a membrane is described further in Section 5.5, infra.

Although the present invention is primarily intended for ethanolenrichment in beverages, the concept described herein can be appliedgenerally to the selective enrichment of one or more volatile componentsin solutions while retaining other dissolved volatile or non-volatilecomponents.

5.2.1 VAPOR-SWEPT SYSTEMS

A preferred vapor-swept pervaporation system embodying the ethanolactivity management concept is shown conceptually in FIG. 12. A membraneunit comprises two flow compartments, one on each side of the membrane154'. Beverage 10 is fed to compartment A of the membrane unit, agas-phase extraction fluid 31' comprising a mixture of noncondensablegas (such as air or nitrogen) and ethanol vapor is fed to the othercompartment B as a sweep stream. A feed subsystem regulates the deliveryrate and the temperature of the beverage; it also replenishes the latentheat of evaporation lost from the feed stream during waterpervaporation. A sweep gas conditioning subsystem is used to regulatethe temperature, ethanol content (and thus ethanol activity), and flowrate of the sweep stream. The beverage emerges with an increasedalcoholic content 16'. An alcohol recovery subsystem 39 separates thewater and ethanol 40' from the non-condensable gas 37 in the gas-phaseextraction fluid that emerges 32'. Provided that the sweep stream flowrate is sufficiently high to prevent excess water accumulation on thepermeate side of the membrane, the pervaporation and purging actionswill continue to sustain water removal, and hence ethanol enrichment.Another function of the sweep stream is to help supply part of thelatent heat of evaporation for water.

A source of ethanol is required to supply the permeate side of themembrane continually for the ethanol enrichment mode of vapor-arbitratedpervaporation to function. Because the cost of ethanol is much higherthan that of water, and for environmental protection reasons, it isdesirable to reuse the ethanol vapor in the gas-phase sweep stream.

A particularly preferred embodiment of the process incorporates theethanol vapor recycle scheme shown in FIG. 13. The beverage 10 iscirculated via a pump to compartment A of the membrane unit containingmembrane 15'. The beverage emerges with a reduced water content 16'. Arecirculation blower 51 feeds a sweep stream of non-condensable gas tocompartment B of the membrane unit. Initially, ethanol is supplied froman external source 52 through a valve 53 and a mixing valve 55 into thegas-phase sweep stream until the concentration required to substantiallyequalize the ethanol activities on both sides of the membrane isreached. At that point the external ethanol supply is stopped, while thegas-phase sweep stream continues to be recirculated through compartmentB of the membrane unit. Water from the beverage pervaporates through themembrane into the gas-phase sweep stream which emerges 32'. This sweepstream is partially condensed in a condenser 56 to obtain a liquidstream 40' which contains most of the water and part of the ethanol inthe sweep stream, and a gas stream 38' which contains the remainder ofthe ethanol in vapor form plus essentially all of the non-condensablegas. The liquid stream 40' is sent through a heat exchanger 58 to astill 59, where ethanol vapor 57 is separated from liquid water 37'. Theethanol vapor 57 passes through the heat exchanger 58 where it preheatsthe condensed liquid to be distilled, and is blended into therecirculating gas-phase sweep stream through mixing valve 55. The gasstream 38' emerging from the condenser 56 is re-heated by heatexchanging with the water stream 37' from the still, and then combinedwith the ethanol vapor 57 for recirculation to compartment B of themembrane unit after temperature adjustment with heat exchanger 60.

Recovery of ethanol using this scheme can be quite efficient. First, asa result of the different volatilities of water and ethanol, thecondenser may be operated at a temperature that is sufficiently low tocondense most of the water from the sweep stream while leaving asubstantial amount of ethanol in the vapor state. Clean separation ofsmall quantities of ethanol from water is readily accomplished with astill with minimal fractionation capabilities. As a result, littleethanol is lost in the effluent water stream 37'. It also means thatmost of the ethanol is recycled without going through energy-intensivephase changes.

Under these conditions, the steady-state concentration of ethanol in thesweep stream will reach a point where virtually no net loss or gain ofethanol by the beverage occurs. The vapor arbitration process isself-regulating to some extent, in that if ethanol from the beveragebegins to permeate into compartment B of the membrane unit, theconcentration of ethanol in the sweep stream would increase. Thissituation would cause the ethanol concentrations in streams 32' and 38'to increase correspondingly. This higher ethanol concentration sweepstream is eventually recirculated to compartment B where it impedesfurther ethanol loss from the beverage.

Depending on the ethanol content of the beverage to be treated, thetarget ethanol level in the product beverage, and the processconditions, the gas-phase sweep stream emerging the membrane unit maycontain a very small amount of ethanol. In such cases it may be possibleto rely on the condenser 56 alone to separate water from the ethanol tobe recycled without further distillation. This would be particularlydesirable if the ethanol/water condensate has utility without furtherpurification, such as in the manufacturing of certain beverages.

An alternative embodiment of the ethanol vapor management scheme isillustrated in FIG. 14. The gas-phase sweep stream 32' emerging fromcompartment B of the membrane unit is passed through a first compartmentC of a second membrane unit 61 where it contacts one side of a membrane88 which has the properties of being ethanol-absorbing but waternon-absorbing. Most of the ethanol in the gas phase preferentiallypartitions into that membrane, leaving water vapor, trace quantities ofethanol vapor, and the non-condensable gas in stream 63. This stream maybe vented 64 if air is used as the non-condensable gas or, if anothernon-condensable gas is employed, recirculated after removing the water65 by condensation using condenser 66. Using air as the non-condensablegas 68 is preferred because it obviates capital and operating costsassociated with condensing water from a humid sweep stream. In eithercase, the partially dehydrated non-condensable sweep gas 69 is passed,preferably countercurrently, through compartment D of the secondmembrane unit 61 where it contacts the second side of membrane 88 andreceives the ethanol that had been stripped from stream 32'. Afeed/recirculation blower 67 sends the ethanol-laden stream 69', whichreaches a steady-state concentration needed to equalize ethanol activityacross membrane 15', back to compartment B of the alcohol enrichmentmembrane unit after passing through heat exchanger 60 where thetemperature is brought to the desired level.

A variety of ethanol recovery membranes (88) meet the requirements ofthis process. Examples include membranes that incorporate an extractantwhich is alcohol-absorbing but not water-absorbing, or polymer membraneswith inherently high ethanol-water selectivities. More specifically,membranes of the first type may be (1) an immobilized liquid membranewhere the extractant is held as a continuous phase in the pores of amicroporous membrane; or (2) a polymeric membrane that has a highsolubility for, and is hence swollen by, the extractant liquid with theresult that the selective properties of the liquid extractant dominatesthe overall selectivity of the membrane. The liquid extractant used forthis purpose should be low in toxicity (preferably falling within theGRAS, or Generally Recognized As Safe, classification of the U.S. Foodand Drug Administration), has little taste or aroma, is stable towardoxidation (if air is used as the non-condensable gas), has a highcapacity to dissolve ethanol and a large ratio of ethanol partitioncoefficient to water partition coefficient. Some example extractants aresilicone oils (which comprise polydimethylsiloxanes of certainstructures and molecular weight ranges), branched fatty alcohols in theC12 to C24 range (e.g. isostearyl alcohol, hexadecyl alcohol, eicosylalcohol, etc.), and branched hydrocarbons containing up to about 24carbon atoms that remain fluid at ambient temperatures.

Membranes of the second type include non-porous polymeric membranes thatare relatively hydrophobic and which exhibits low permeability towardwater, i.e. they should be good water barriers. The absoluteethanol/water permselectivity of the membrane is not particularlystringent in this application because further separation of ethanolvapor from liquid water is performed downstream by selectivecondensation (66 in FIG. 14). Candidate membrane materials meeting thesecriteria comprise certain silicone elastomers, polyolefins, andfluoropolymers.

Further variations of ethanol vapor management schemes are conceivable,including reversible absorption and stripping with selective ethanolextractants in classical gas/liquid contacting unit operations, as willbe apparent to those skilled in the art.

5.2.2 VACUUM SYSTEMS

A pervaporation system embodying the ethanol activity equalizationconcept but which uses vacuum to remove the permeate is depicted in FIG.15. The beverage 10 is fed into compartment A of the membrane unitcontaining the membrane 15' via a pump to produce a beverage of reducedwater content and enriched ethanol content 16'. The outlet fromcompartment B of the membrane unit is connected to a liquid ring pump70, which generates a partial vacuum to aid the evaporative removal ofwater that has permeated across the membrane from the beverage, andcondenses, by compression, part of that permeate stream 32' whichcomprises a mixture of water and ethanol vapors. Under appropriateconditions, most of the water vapor would be recovered in the liquidcondensate, while much of the ethanol vapor would be reclaimed in thegas phase using a vapor-liquid separator 71. Part of the condensate isrecirculated within the pump to act as a compressant; the remainder ofthe condensate is removed. Optionally, this condensate may be distilledat 59 to remove the residual ethanol, which may be added to the recycledethanol vapor stream emerging from the liquid ring pump. To obtain anethanol activity less than unity, the ethanol vapor is returned to thepermeate side of the membrane at a partial pressure lower than its vaporpressure. This step is accomplished by adjusting the pressure controlvalve 53 to open and to supply a measured amount of ethanol vapor intocompartment B of the membrane unit.

5.3 FLAVOR AND AROMA ENRICHMENT

In flavor and aroma enrichment applications, vapor-arbitratedpervaporation processes are operated such that water and ethanol areremoved at a given proportion until the required volume reduction, andoptional changes in alcohol content, are reached. Unlike conventionalmembrane processes in which the membrane is the only source ofselectivity, and therefore the separation of individual componentsdepends mostly on the characteristics of the membrane and the componentsto be separated, the effective driving force of each component may becontrolled independently in vapor-arbitrated pervaporation, whereby therelative transport rates of the components can be manipulated to differsubstantially from those expected on the basis of membrane selectivitiesalone. In effect, the inherent selectivity of the membrane iscomplemented by active arbitration of the driving force for permeationof the volatile components to be retained or removed from a feed liquid.

Special cases of this unique ability of vapor-arbitrated pervaporationprocesses have been illustrated supra in the cases of selective alcoholreduction and alcohol enrichment. In those cases, the removal of one ofthe volatile components has to be minimized so as not to requirereplenishment or reconstitution. By contrast, the principal objective inflavor and aroma enrichment is to preserve as much of the solutes aspossible while removing the cosolvents ethanol and water. It may bedesirable to remove more water than ethanol, or conversely more ethanolthan water, depending on the desired specification of the product. Itmay even be desirable to reduce the volume of the beverage with nosignificant change in its alcohol concentration. The ability to regulatethis ratio is important because alcoholic beverages typically containboth water-soluble components and ethanol-soluble components in theirnatural state, and large changes in ethanol concentration may cause oneor more of the components to precipitate or phase separate before theoverall degree of concentration or volume reduction is reached. Suchinstabilities may be immediately evident, or they may be manifest in theform of reduced product stability during storage, transportation, and/orexposure to changing environmental conditions, especially temperatureswings.

These varied objectives can be accomplished with vapor-arbitratedpervaporation by adjusting the concentrations of ethanol and water inthe gaseous sweep stream so that the concentration ratio of thesecomponents in the vapor phase complements the inherent selectivity ratioof the membrane to cause simultaneous removal of water and ethanol fromthe beverage in the desired ratio. This concept is illustrated in FIG.16. If a constant alcohol concentration is needed, the concentrationratio of these components in the vapor phase should be adjusted so thatwater and ethanol are removed in exactly the same proportion as thatpresent in the beverage phase. The product then has the same alcohollevel as the original beverage, but is enriched in flavor and aromacomponents.

As with alcohol reduction or alcohol enrichment, a partial vacuum may beused to drive the permeation of the volatile component. Supplyingmeasured concentrations of the component to be retained into the partialvacuum on the permeate side of the membrane again serves to opposediffusional transport of that component from the beverage.

While two components can be removed simultaneously by means ofconventional separation processes, and membrane processes in particular,this state often indicates a lack of sufficient selectivity. To attaincleaner separations, conventional membrane processes may be staged,sometimes involving recycling. Even then, it is seldom feasible toobtain every possible ratio of cosolvents in the final product. It is animportant advantage of the present invention that a significant degreeof control hitherto not achievable can be exerted over the finalcomposition of the product liquid.

A further advantage of vapor-arbitrated pervaporation is related to thepresence of a gas phase on the permeate side of the membrane. Even ifthey may not be completely retained by the membrane, nonvolatilecomponents such as sugars, tannins etc. remain in the beverage becausethey cannot evaporate into the gas phase. This situation differs fromthat in reverse osmosis where the simultaneous removal of ethanol andwater can lead to losses of volatile and nonvolatile components alikedue to flow coupling, and where the liquid phase permeate is receptiveto those components because of their inherent solubility inethanol/water mixtures.

5.3.1 VAPOR-SWEPT SYSTEMS

A particularly preferred embodiment of the vapor-arbitratedpervaporation process for flavor and aroma enrichment via volumereduction of ethanol and water is shown in FIG. 17. Similar to theoperation of the alcohol enrichment system described in FIG. 13, thepresent embodiment incorporates reclamation of the ethanol vaporcirculating in the vapor phase. In addition, a provision has been madeto supply water vapor 73 into the gas-phase sweep stream at measuredrates through valve 72. Means for generating suitable sources of watervapor have been described in Section 5.1, supra. The desired degree ofvapor arbitration for ethanol and water is achieved by adjusting therate of addition of those vapors.

5.3.2 VACUUM SYSTEMS

A vapor-arbitrated pervaporation system embodying the concept ofsimultaneous vapor arbitration for water and for ethanol are similar tothose illustrated in FIGS. 10 and 15. This system creates a partialvacuum to provide the driving force for permeation in a manner similarlyto that depicted previously.

If a lower ethanol concentration in the enriched product liquid comparedto that in the original beverage is desired, then the vapor returned tothe membrane unit should be relatively water-rich and ethanol-poor toencourage ethanol removal. This process may be accomplished by combiningpart of the ethanol vapor stream obtained at the condensation step withwater vapor generated by re-evaporation of part of the condensed water(or with a regulated supply of fresh steam) such that the resultantethanol concentration in the recirculating vapor provides more impedanceto water removal than to ethanol removal. The portion of the ethanolvapor that is not reused may be sent to a separate reclamation step.

Conversely, if a higher ethanol concentration in the enriched productliquid compared to that in the original beverage is desired, then thevapor returned to the membrane unit should be relatively ethanol-richand water-poor to encourage water removal. This process may beaccomplished by decreasing the amount of re-evaporated water vapor orsteam to be mixed with the ethanol vapor.

For the special case of enriching flavors and aromas by net volumereduction with no significant changes in ethanol concentration, thesweep stream emerging from the membrane unit is cooled to a temperaturesufficiently low to liquify most of the water and ethanol. Part of thisliquid is discharged, but part of it is reheated to process temperature,evaporated and recirculated to the permeate side of the membrane forvapor arbitration purposes.

In volume reduction applications, it is preferable to use the minimumpracticable quantity of water vapor and ethanol vapor necessary toestablish the desired concentration ratio of those components in thegas-phase. The driving force for pervaporation of water and ethanol fromthe feed liquid is thereby maximized. It is also possible to increaseproductivity by moderate pressure increases applied to the liquid phase.

5.4 VAPOR ARBITRATION FOR COMPONENTS OTHER THAN ETHANOL AND WATER

To the extent that no semipermeable membrane is perfectly selective,some permeation loss of volatile components from feed liquids can occurduring pervaporation--including various implementations ofvapor-arbitrated pervaporation processes--even if membranes consideredto have good retentive properties are employed. Frequently such lossesare acceptable because the changes in concentration are below thethreshold of detection, or because those components do not contributesignificantly to the overall quality of the product liquid. In certaincases such losses are welcome, as with acetaldehyde and methanol whichhave some degree of toxicity. In other cases, however, minute changes inthe composition involving key flavor and aroma components are readilyperceptible and the product then judged degraded.

The principles of vapor-arbitrated pervaporation can be universallyapplied to controlling the loss of volatile components from liquids. Byintroducing an appropriate amount of the same volatile component onewishes to preserve in the feed liquid into the permeate side of themembrane, transmembrane diffusion of that component can be attenuated tothe point that retention can be considered essentially perfect. Forexample, ethyl acetate is a congener responsible for the characteristicbouquet of certain alcoholic beverages. It is highly volatile,relatively small in molecular size, and exhibits moderate solubility inmany polymers, and can therefore permeate readily through a variety ofmembranes. To prevent its loss from the beverage, ethyl acetate vapormay be blended in the form of a vaporized additive at a measured rateinto the sweep gas stream during vapor-arbitrated pervaporation. A lowvapor-phase concentration usually suffices to halt any loss from thefeed side because the ester is present only in trace quantities in mostbeverages. In this way, the quality of the beverage can be preservedbetter than has previously been possible with other processing methods.This general approach of using vaporized additives in vapor-arbitratedpervaporation may therefore be considered an effective means ofcompensating for imperfect selectivity, a goal not attainable withconventional membrane processes.

It is usually desirable to reclaim the vapor of the volatile minorcomponent added for vapor arbitration purposes. This may be accomplishedby a variety of methods, the proper choice of which depends on whetherthe vapor-arbitrated pervaporation process is operated in the alcoholreduction or alcohol enrichment mode, and on the relative volatilitiesof the minor component with respect to ethanol and water. Tworepresentative cases are considered here:

(1) Alcohol reduction in a vapor-swept system (see FIG. 7-10 in Section5.1.1, supra). where the permeate stream emerging from the membranemodule may be condensed to separate the non-condensable gas, thenfractionating the condensate to recover the minor component for recycle;

(2) Alcohol enrichment in a vapor-swept system (see FIG. 14 in Section5.2.1, supra). If the minor component is much more volatile thanwater--as the case is with ethyl acetate--the condenser 56 may beoperated at a temperature sufficiently low to liquify most of the waterwhile leaving the ethanol and the minor component in the vapor stream tobe recirculated directly to the membrane unit. Conversely, if the minorcomponent is much less volatile than ethanol, then it may be condensedtogether with water (stream 40' in FIG. 13), then fractionated toregenerate its vapor for blending with the recirculating ethanol vaporstream.

Other schemes for recovering and recycling the minor component (as avolatile additive) are possible, as will be apparent to those skilled inthe art of process design; these may be integrated with vapor-arbitratedpervaporation of this invention.

5.5 MEMBRANES

The membranes used in the alcohol removal methods of the presentinvention must have a high ethanol/congener selectivity when ethanol isremoved by extraction with gas-phase extraction fluids. Specifically,the membranes should be highly permeable to ethanol and be permselectivebetween ethanol and other organic components of the beverage. Similarly,the membranes used in the alcohol enrichment methods of the presentinvention must have a high water/congener selectivity when water isremoved by extraction with gas-phase extraction fluids. Specifically,the membranes should be highly permeable to water and be permselectivebetween water and other organic components of the beverage. Frequently,a given membrane suited for the purpose of alcohol reduction will alsofunction properly for alcohol enrichment because its permeabilitiestoward ethanol and water are likely to be quite high compared to itspermeabilities toward other beverage components. Because of the uniquefeatures of the present invention, the ethanol/water selectivity of themembrane is of secondary importance during vapor-arbitratedpervaporation. Finally, membranes intended for flavor and aromaenrichment should satisfy requirements similar to those discussed supra.

Bearing these conditions in mind, a number of types of membranes havepotential applicability in this invention, and the choice will beinfluenced by economic considerations, the ethanol compatibility of themembrane, and its availability in high-surface-area configurations. Forexample, membranes constructed of crosslinked or uncrosslinked polymericmaterials or more loosely organized elastomeric materials are suitable.Membranes that are now used for reverse osmosis (RO) are good candidatesfor use in this invention, because RO applications entail hightransmembrane water fluxes of polar permeants (e.g., water). Membranesthat permit rapid water permeation usually will be significantlypermeable to ethanol as well.

Membranes which exhibit ethanol and/or water fluxes adequate for thepresent invention should be thin, nonporous, and may be derived frompolymers that are crosslinked or uncrosslinked, glassy or rubbery, andwater-swollen to various degrees. In our alcohol reduction tests (perExamples 1-5 in Section 6, infra), ethanol fluxes ranging from about0.04 to 0.09 mL/cm² -hr have been observed with a thin-film-compositecrosslinked polyurea membrane, depending on the ethanol concentration inthe feed beverage. Related permeation tests conducted in our laboratorycomparing various membrane types showed the relative ethanol fluxeslisted in Table II. Similarly, in alcohol enrichment and volumereduction tests (per Examples 6-9 in Section 6, infra), water fluxesbetween 0.008 and 0.015 mL/cm² -hr were observed.

                  TABLE II                                                        ______________________________________                                        Relative Ethanol Removal Rates                                                Among Different Membranes                                                                        Relative ethanol                                           Membrane           Flux                                                       ______________________________________                                        Crosslinked polyurea                                                                             1.0                                                        Crosslinked polyamide                                                                            0.67                                                       Cellulose acetate  1.3                                                        Cellulose triacetate                                                                             1.7                                                        Crosslinked polyvinyl-alcohol                                                                    1.8                                                        Sulfonated polybenzimidazole                                                                     1.7                                                        ______________________________________                                    

The literature contains numerous references to membranes of variedcompositions and structures. In general, membranes that are relativelyhydrophilic (i.e. exhibiting higher permeabilities to water and ethanolthan to higher alcohols) with fluxes comparable to those mentioned suprashould be suitable from a production standpoint.

Table III shows the ethanol/congener selectivity of a hydrophilic,crosslinked polyurea membrane in terms of congener/ethanol permeabilityratios. Clearly, ethanol permeated more rapidly across the membrane thandid the higher alcohols and other congeners (with the exception ofmethanol--a desirable attribute because of the relatively high toxicityof that alcohol).

                  TABLE III                                                       ______________________________________                                        Selectivity Characteristics Of A                                              Suitable Alcohol Reduction Membrane                                                          Permeability relative                                          Congener       to that of ethanol                                             ______________________________________                                        Methanol       1.4                                                            Ethanol        1.0                                                            1-Propanol     0.092                                                          i-Butanol      0.10                                                           active Amyl alcohol                                                                          0.081                                                          i-Amyl alcohol 0.072                                                          Ethyl acetate  0.44                                                           i-Amyl acetate 0.45                                                           Acetic acid    0.09                                                           ______________________________________                                    

In view of the above considerations, a number of membrane types may beuseful for the selective removal of ethanol from alcoholic beveragesincluding, but not limited to, various aliphatic and aromaticpolyamides, polyureas, polyetherureas, polyimides, polyoxazolines,polyetheraminotriazine, regenerated cellulose, cellulose acetate,cellulose triacetate, crosslinked polyvinyl alcohol, polyacrylonitrileand its copolymers (these polymers being particularly resistant toethanol swelling), polybenzimidazole, and polybenzimidazolone,hydrophilic crosslinked vinyl polymers and copolymers, and ion-exchangemembranes with various counterions.

Any membrane geometry is potentially applicable. In a preferredembodiment, a hollow-fiber module with high membrane area-to-modulevolume ratio is used. The flow of alcoholic beverage may be directedthrough the lumen of the hollow fibers and the gas-phase extractionfluid along the exterior shell of the fibers, or vice versa. Thepreferred configuration will depend on the pressure capability,wettability, and porosity of the fibers, as well as on the hydrodynamicand mass transfer characteristics of the modules containing them. Thepreferred operating pressures of the process depend on the specificembodiment. With humidified non-condensable gas as the sweep stream, thepreferred gas stream pressure would be at 1 atm, or fractionally above 1atm consistent with membrane module and piping pressure drops. Thebeverage stream will similarly be held at or about 1 atm to minimize thetransmembrane pressure. Where vacuum operation is the preferred methodof removing the pervaporated ethanol, then the permeate side of themembrane will be maintained at subatmospheric pressures.

6. EXAMPLES

Examples of the practice of the invention are as follows Examples 1-5describe the removal of ethanol by the special pervaporation process ofthis invention. Examples 6-8 describe the enrichment of ethanol, andExample 9 describes the controlled removal of water and ethanol suchthat there is a net decrease in the volume but not a significant changein ethanol concentration of the feed.

6.1 EXAMPLE NOS. 1 AND 2

An alcohol reduction apparatus shown schematically in FIG. 9 comprises amembrane module, a feed beverage recirculation subsystem, an air supplysubsystem with adjustable flow rate, temperature, and relative humidity,and an ethanol recovery subsystem. The membrane module is of aplate-and-frame modular construction that allows circulation on bothsides of the membrane unit and contains 1700 cm² of effective membranearea.

The alcohol-reduced beverage is obtained using substantially the sameprocedure as described in Section 5.1.1, above, for the operation of theapparatus shown in FIG. 9. Feed Wine (Robert Mondavi 1985 Cabernet RedTable Wine) is circulated on the feed side of the membrane, while thegas-phase extraction fluid, a humidified air sweep stream, is deliveredto the permeate side of the membrane unit. Two wine samples aregenerated under conditions which are summarized in Table IV, infra.

                  TABLE IV                                                        ______________________________________                                                          Example 1                                                                             Example 2                                           ______________________________________                                        Initial wine volume (mL)                                                                          959       315                                             Initial alcohol concn. (%)                                                                        12        12.4                                            Final wine volume (mL)                                                                            889       284                                             Final alcohol concn. (%)                                                                          7.8       6.5                                             Processing time (hrs)                                                                             6.8       2                                               Wine temperature (°C.)                                                                     25.2 ± 2                                                                             27.5 ± 0.1                                   Wine flow rate (mL/min)                                                                           500       420                                             Sweep air temperature (°C.)                                                                 26 ± 1.5                                                                            26.5 ± 0.3                                   Sweep air flow rate (L/min)                                                                       11.5      11.5                                            Relative humidity of                                                                              89 ± 6 96 ± 3                                       sweep air stream (%)                                                          Ethanol flux (10.sup.-3 mL/cm.sup.2 -hr)                                                          3.9       6                                               Water flux (10.sup.-3 mL/cm.sup.2 -hr)                                                            2.6       3.7                                             ______________________________________                                    

The alcohol-reduced samples retain virtually all of the flavor andbouquet of the original wine. More ethanol is present in the pervaporatethan water, showing that alcohol is selectively removed from thebeverage. Errors in measuring relative humidities close to the dew pointlimited the precision of water activity balance across the membrane,with the result that some water is also pervaporated from the wine.However, the quantity of water which is removed represents a muchsmaller fraction of its original volume in the wine than was the casewith ethanol. Thus, the alcohol concentration of the finished winedecreases substantially, but the water concentration remains almostunchanged.

6.2 EXAMPLE NOS. 3 AND 4

Whiskies are alcoholic distillates from fermented mash of grain, storedin oak containers for maturation. Two examples are disclosed toillustrate the application of the present process to removing ethanolfrom whiskies. An alcohol reduction apparatus similar to that describedin Examples 1 and 2 is equipped with a plate-and-frame membrane stackcontaining 2030 cm² of effective membrane area. Feed whisky (EarlyTimes™) is obtained directly from the barrel nominally at 130 proof,i.e. 65 vol % ethanol. Whisky and humidified air are supplied to themembrane as described in the preceding Section. Ethanol in the sweep airstream is recovered in a condenser. The experimental conditions andresults are shown in Table V infra.

                  TABLE V                                                         ______________________________________                                                          Example 3                                                                             Example 4                                           ______________________________________                                        Initial whisky volume (mL)                                                                        1160      1410                                            Initial alcohol concn. (%)                                                                        65.3      59.7                                            Final whisky volume (mL)                                                                          670       940                                             Final alcohol concn. (%)                                                                          41.9      38.8                                            Processing time (hrs)                                                                             2.6       3.1                                             Whisky temperature (°C.)                                                                   30        30                                              Whisky flow rate (mL/min)                                                                         500       420                                             Sweep air temperature (°C.)                                                                30        30                                              Sweep air flow rate (L/min)                                                                       22.5      22.5                                            Relative humidity of                                                                              77 ± 2 80 ± 2                                       sweep air stream (%)                                                          Ethanol flux (10.sup.-3 mL/cm.sup.2 -hr)                                                          92        77                                              Water flux (10.sup.-3 mL/cm.sup.2 -hr)                                                            6.9       2.4                                             Ethanol concentration                                                                             80        79.9                                            in condensed permeate (%)                                                     ______________________________________                                    

Both alcohol-reduced whisky samples exhibit the taste and aromacharacter of the original material, but at substantially higherintensity. The product whiskies also show a deeper amber color comparedwith the feed. This result is due to the very good retention propertiesof the membrane and the concentration effect associated with theapproximately one-third decrease in feed volume after processing.

The high rates of ethanol removal observed are attributable to the highalcohol concentration in whisky. The relative humidity required tobalance water activities on the feed and permeate sides of the membraneis about 80%, substantially lower than that needed for processing wines.This result is consistent with the fact that whiskies contain less waterthan do wines and hence have lower water activities. The ratio ofethanol flux to water flux is about 13 in Example 3, and about 32 inExample 4. Water lost from the whisky represents about 1 to 2 percent ofthe feed volume. This observation means that almost all of the water inthe feed beverage is preserved. Feed whisky flow rates above about 300mL/min have little effect on the performance of the system.

Notably, the ethanol recovered as condensate is quite high inconcentration and carries with it a high value as a marketablecommodity.

6.3 EXAMPLE NO. 5

A brandy is a distilled spirit derived from wine or fermented fruitjuice. This example illustrates the alcohol reduction of a cognac (abrandy produced in the Cognac region in France). An alcohol reductionapparatus similar to that described in Examples 1 and 2 is equipped witha plate-and-frame membrane stack containing 1020 cm² of effectivemembrane area. Feed brandy (Remy Martin VSOP available commerciallywhich contains about 40 vol % ethanol) and humidified air are suppliedto the membrane as described in the preceding examples. Ethanol in thegas-phase extraction fluid is recovered in a condenser. Experimentalconditions and results are shown in Table VI, infra.

                  TABLE VI                                                        ______________________________________                                        Initial brandy volume (mL)                                                                         775                                                      Initial alcohol concn. (%)                                                                         38.5                                                     Final brandy volume (mL)                                                                           675                                                      Final alcohol concn. (%)                                                                           28.6                                                     Processing time (hrs)                                                                              1.7                                                      Brandy temperature (°C.)                                                                    30                                                       Brandy flow rate (mL/min)                                                                          680                                                      Sweep air temperature (°C.)                                                                 30                                                       Sweep air flow rate (L/min)                                                                        30                                                       Relative humidity of 84 ± 2                                                sweep air stream (%)                                                          Ethanol flux (10.sup.-3 mL/cm.sup.2 -hr)                                                           62                                                       Water flux (10.sup.-3 mL/cm.sup.2 -hr)                                                             0.84                                                     Retention of C.sub.5 alcohols                                                                      93                                                       Ethanol concentration                                                                              42.2                                                     in condensed permeate (%)                                                     ______________________________________                                    

Water activity balance is essentially perfect in this example. Waterflux is only 1.4% of the ethanol flux, indicating that the membraneprocess is almost perfectly selective with respect to ethanol/waterselection. The organoleptic quality of the low-alcohol brandy is veryclose to that of the original. Also, 93% of the two amyl-alcohols isretained. These results indicate that the membrane exhibits a very highethanol/congener selectivity.

6.4 EXAMPLE NOS. 6 AND 7

The examples described herein relate to the alcohol enrichment aspect ofthe present invention.

An apparatus shown schematically in FIG. 18 comprises a membrane module,a feed beverage recirculation subsystem, an air supply subsystem withadjustable flow rate and temperature, and an ethanol vapor supplysubsystem comprising a metering pump and a heated vaporization/mixingchamber. The membrane unit is of a plate-and-frame modular constructioncontaining 4050 cm² of a polyurea thin-film composite membrane.

A beverage or alcohol-containing solution is fed into one side of themembrane module at a given flow rate and temperature. Liquid ethanol orethanol/water azeotrope (95% ethanol) is fed by the metering pump intothe mixing chamber heated to approximately 80° to 90° C., where all ofthe liquid is vaporized. Air is pumped through the mixing chamber andblends with the ethanol vapor to a predetermined ethanol concentration.This sweep stream is brought to operating temperature in a heatexchanger and delivered to the permeate side of the membrane module.

To illustrate the concept of alcohol enrichment, an ethanol-watermixture containing about 20 vol % ethanol and trace amounts of amylalcohol (as a model congener) is circulated on the feed side of themembrane, and an air stream containing between 2.3 and 2.6% ethanolvapor is passed along the permeate side of the membrane. Two samples areproduced under conditions summarized in Table VII, infra These productliquids contain reduced amounts of water but most of the ethanol and anyalcohol in the original mixture. In the case of Example 6, the waterflux is over a hundred fold higher than the ethanol flux, and littleethanol is lost from the original liquid mixture; these results indicatethat vapor arbitration with respect to ethanol performs as expected.There is also a marked increase in the concentration of the amyl alcoholin the feed. Hence one might anticipate that a beverage or flavorextract can be partially depleted of its water content to enhance itsethanol and congener content effectively.

                  TABLE VII                                                       ______________________________________                                        Alcohol Enrichment in Ethanol/Water Mixtures                                                    Example 6                                                                             Example 7                                           ______________________________________                                        Initial ethanol/water                                                                             1970      1960                                            mixture volume (mL)                                                           Initial ethanol concn. (vol %)                                                                    19.7      19.9                                            Final ethanol/water 1430      1150                                            mixture volume (mL)                                                           Final ethanol concn. (vol %)                                                                      26.9      31.1                                            Processing time (hrs)                                                                             12.8      20.8                                            Ethanol/water mixture temp (°C.)                                                           25        25                                              Ethanol/water flow rate (L/min)                                                                   0.730     0.770                                           Sweep stream temperature (°C.)                                                             28        28                                              Sweep stream flow rate (L/min)                                                                    29        30                                              95% ethanol input rate (mL/min)                                                                   1.77      1.96                                            Ethanol flux (10.sup.-3 mL/cm.sup.2 -hr)                                                          0.13      0.56                                            Water flux (10.sup.-3 mL/cm.sup.2 -hr)                                                            15.0      13.5                                            Ethanol permeated as % of feed                                                                    0.2       1.6                                             Water permeated as % of feed                                                                      27        40                                              Initial amyl alcohol concn.                                                                       36        36                                              in feed liquid (ppm)                                                          Final amyl alcohol concentration                                                                  44        51                                              in feed liquid (ppm)                                                          ______________________________________                                    

6.5 EXAMPLE NO. 8

An alcohol-enriched sake sample is generated by increasing its ethanolconcentration from about 20 to 25 vol % under conditions shown in TableVIII. The membrane and apparatus employed are similar to those describedin Example 6. Using the method of ethanol vapor arbitration, about 20%of the water present in the original beverage is removed, but only 0.5%of the ethanol is lost. The resultant sake is noticeably enriched intaste. This example illustrates the fact that the same preselectedmembrane can be used for alcohol reduction or alcohol enrichment simplyby manipulating sweep stream conditions.

                  TABLE VIII                                                      ______________________________________                                        Alcohol Enrichment in Sake                                                    ______________________________________                                        Initial sake volume (mL)                                                                              1180                                                  Initial ethanol concn. (vol. %)                                                                       20.2                                                  Final sake volume (mL)  934                                                   Final ethanol concn. (vol. %)                                                                         24.9                                                  Processing time (hrs)   7.1                                                   Processing temperature (°C.)                                                                   25                                                    Vapor pressure of pure ethanol (mmHg)                                                                 59.1                                                  Log-mean average partial pressure                                                                     16.9                                                  of ethanol in the feed (mmHg)                                                 Log-mean average partial pressure                                                                     16.3                                                  of ethanol in the sweep stream (mmHg)                                         Ethanol saturation ratio                                                                              0.29                                                  Sake flow rate (L/min)  0.875                                                 Sweep air flow rate (L/min)                                                                           29.7                                                  95% ethanol addition rate (mL/min)                                                                    1.62                                                  Ethanol content in air stream (%)                                                                     2.12                                                  Ethanol flux (10.sup.-3 mL/cm.sup.2 -hr)                                                              0.19                                                  Water flux (10.sup.-3 mL/cm.sup.2 -hr)                                                                8.4                                                   Ethanol permeated as % of feed                                                                        0.5                                                   Water permeated as % of feed                                                                          20.4                                                  ______________________________________                                    

6.6 EXAMPLE NO. 9

The following example pertains to net volume reduction of anethanol-water mixture by simultaneous removal of both water and ethanolat precisely the proportion required to avoid changing the ethanolconcentration of the liquid feed. Conditions of this test are shown inTable IX, infra. The membrane and apparatus used are the same as thosedescribed in Example 6, supra.

                  TABLE IX                                                        ______________________________________                                        Volume Reduction of an Ethanol-Water                                          Mixture with Limited Concentration Change                                     ______________________________________                                        Initial ethanol-water mixture volume (mL)                                                              2345                                                 Initial ethanol concn. (vol %)                                                                         20.6                                                 Final ethanol-water volume (mL)                                                                        1511                                                 Final ethanol concn. (vol %)                                                                           20.3                                                 Processing time (hrs)    22                                                   Processing temperature (°C.)                                                                    25                                                   Vapor pressure of pure ethanol (mmHg)                                                                  59.1                                                 Log-mean average partial pressure                                                                      15.2                                                 of ethanol in the feed (mmHg)                                                 Log-mean average partial pressure                                                                      12.8                                                 of ethanol in the sweep stream (mmHg)                                         Flow rate of ethanol-water                                                                             0.766                                                feed solution (L/min)                                                         Sweep air flow rate (L/min)                                                                            29.7                                                 95% ethanol addition rate (mL/min)                                                                     1.2                                                  Ethanol content in air stream (%)                                                                      1.65                                                 Ethanol flux (10.sup.-3 mL/cm.sup.2 -hr)                                                               1.98                                                 Water flux (10.sup.-3 mL/cm.sup.2 -hr)                                                                 7.56                                                 Ethanol permeated as % of feed                                                                         7.5                                                  Water permeated as % of feed                                                                           28.7                                                 ______________________________________                                    

The unique capability of vapor-arbitrated pervaporation processes forachieving a constant solvent composition during volume reduction isillustrated in this test. In the course of reducing the volume of thefeed liquid by about one-third, the net change in ethanol concentrationis only about 1.5%. This reduction is achieved by adjusting the drivingforces for the transport of ethanol and water so that their fluxesdiffer by a factor of about four, corresponding approximately to thevolume ratio of those two solvents in the feed liquid (neglectingeffects of nonideal mixing on volume additivity). To the extent that themembrane used is similar to that employed in previous examples,substantial retention of congeners is expected to occur if thosecomponents had been present in the feed liquid, in which case anenhancement of flavors and aromas would result.

As will be apparent to those skilled in the art, many modifications andvariations of this invention may be made without departing from itsspirit and scope. The specific embodiments described herein are offeredby way of example only, and the invention is limited only by the termsof the appended claims.

What is claimed:
 1. A method comprising manipulating the concentrationof at least one preselected member of a plurality of volatile componentsincluding an alcohol and water present in an alcoholic beverage in whichsubstantially any predetermined desired concentrations of alcohol andwater in an alcoholic beverage are provided, while preserving the flavorand aroma of the alcoholic beverage by;(a) providing a membrane having afeed side and a permeate side opposite feed side, said membrane beingpermeable to said at least one preselected member; (b) contracting saidalcoholic beverage against said feed side of said membrane; (c)contacting a gas-phase extraction fluid against said permeate sidemembrane, said extraction fluid comprising a vapor mixture capable ofarbitrating the pervaporation of said volatile components such that aportion of said preselected member passes from said feed side of saidmembrane to said permeate side of said membrane and mixes with saidextraction fluid, while a substantial portion of the remaining membersof said plurality of volatile components is retained in said alcoholicbeverage on said feed side of said membrane; and (d) allowing saidalcoholic beverage and said extraction fluid to remain in contact withsaid feed side and said permeate side of said membrane, respectively,for a period of time sufficient to provide a second liquid on said feedside of said membrane in which the concentration of said preselectedmember has been manipulated to the desired level.
 2. The method of claim1 which further comprises recovering said preselected member of saidplurality of volatile components which preselected member has becomemixed with said extraction fluid.
 3. The method of claim 2 which furthercomprises recycling at least a portion of said extraction fluid, fromwhich said preselected member has been recovered, for recontactingagainst said permeate side of said membrane.
 4. The method of claim 1which further comprises maintaining said permeate side of said membraneat a pressure which is lower than that of said feed side of saidmembrane.
 5. The method of claim 1 which further comprises regulatingthe pressure differential between said feed side of said membrane andsaid permeate side of said membrane.
 6. The method of claim 4 or 5 inwhich said pressure is maintained or regulated with the aid of a vacuumpump.
 7. The method of claim 1 which further comprises regulating theflow rate of said alcoholic beverage, said extraction fluid or bothagainst the appropriate side of said membrane.
 8. The method of claim 1which further comprises regulating the temperature of said alcoholicbeverage, said extraction fluid or both.
 9. The method of claim 8 inwhich said temperature ranges from about 420 C. to about 7520 C.
 10. Themethod of claim 1 which further comprises varying the ratio of the flowrate of the alcoholic beverage to the area of the membrane which is incontact with said alcoholic beverage.
 11. The method of claim 1 in whichsaid preselected member is an alcohol having 1 to 3 carbon atoms. 12.The method of claim 11 in which said remaining members comprise nativewater and congeners present in said alcoholic beverage.
 13. The methodof claim 1 in which said preselected member is ethanol.
 14. The methodof claim 13 in which said remaining members comprise native water andcongeners present in said alcoholic beverage.
 15. The method of claim 11or 13 in which said vapor mixture comprises a non-condensable gas andwater vapor.
 16. The method of claim 11 or 13 in which said vapormixture comprises air and water vapor.
 17. The method of claim 11 or 13in which said vapor mixture comprises nitrogen and water vapor.
 18. Themethod of claim 1 in which said preselected member is water.
 19. Themethod of claim 18 in which said remaining members comprise nativealcohol and congeners present in said alcoholic beverage.
 20. The methodof claim 18 in which said remaining members comprise native ethanol andcongeners present in said alcoholic beverage.
 21. The method of claim 18in which said vapor mixture comprises a non-condensable gas and ethanolvapor.
 22. The method of claim 18 in which said vapor mixture comprisesa non-condensable gas and vapor obtained from the azeotrope ofethanol-water.
 23. The method of claim 18 in which said vapor mixturecomprises a non-condensable gas and a vapor obtained from recycledextraction fluid.
 24. The method of claim 1 in which said preselectedmembers include water and ethanol.
 25. The method of claim 24 in whichsaid vapor mixture comprises a non-condensable gas and an ethanol-watervapor having a predetermined composition.
 26. The method of claim 1 inwhich said remaining members comprise congeners present in saidalcoholic beverage.
 27. The method of claim 26, 12, 14, 19 or 20 inwhich said congeners comprise compounds which contribute to the flavor,aroma or color of said alcoholic beverage.
 28. The method of claim 1 inwhich said extraction fluid further comprises a sufficient amount ofcongeners comprising compounds which contribute to the flavor, aroma orcolor of said alcoholic beverage such that the transmembrane diffusionof the corresponding compounds which are native to said alcoholicbeverage is substantially prevented.
 29. The method of claim 1 in whichsaid extraction fluid further comprises a sufficient amount of selectedvaporized additives.
 30. The method of claim 29 in which said selectedvaporized additives are selected from the group consisting of organiccompounds, inorganic compounds or both.
 31. A method comprising:enriching the concentration of native ethanol in an alcoholic beveragein which substantially any predetermined desired concentrations ofethanol and water in an alcoholic beverage is provided, while preservingthe flavor and aroma of the alcoholic beverage by,(a) providing amembrane having feed side and a permeate side opposite said feed side,said membrane being permeable to water; (b) contacting said alcoholicbeverage against said feed side of said membrane; (c) contacting agas-phase extraction fluid against said permeate side of said membrane,said extraction fluid comprising an ethanol vapor mixture capable ofarbitrating the pervaporation of said native ethanol such that a portionof the water present in said alcoholic beverage passes from said feedside of said membrane to said permeate side of said membrane and mixeswith said extraction fluid, while a substantial proportion of saidnative ethanol is retained in said alcoholic beverage on said feed sideof said membrane; and (d) allowing said alcoholic beverage and saidextraction fluid to remain in contact with said feed side and saidpermeate side of said membrane, respectively, for a period of timesufficient to provide a second liquid on said feed side of said membranein which the concentration of said native ethanol has been enriched tothe desired level.
 32. A method comprising: reducing the volume of analcoholic beverage comprising at least two volatile solvents includingan alcohol and water in which substantially any predetermined desiredconcentrations of alcohol and water in an alcoholic beverage isprovided, while preserving the flavor and aroma of the alcoholicbeverage by,(a) providing a membrane having a feed side and a permeateside opposite said feed side, said membrane being permeable to said atleast two volatile solvents; (b) contacting said alcoholic beverageagainst said feed side of said membrane; (c) contacting a gas-phaseextraction fluid against said permeate side of said membrane, saidextraction fluid comprising a mixture of said volatile solvents suchthat a portion of the corresponding solvents which are native to saidalcoholic beverage passes from said feed side of said membrane to saidpermeate side of said membrane at a preselected flux ratio and mixeswith said extraction fluid, such that the resultant volume-reducedliquid contains the desired proportion of said native volatile solvents;and (d) allowing said alcoholic beverage and said extraction fluid toremain in contact with said feed side and said permeate side of saidmembrane, respectively, for a period of time sufficient to provide asecond liquid on said feed side of said membrane having a volume whichhas been reduced to the desired level.
 33. The method of claim 32 inwhich said volatile solvents include ethanol and water.
 34. A methodcomprising reducing the volume of an alcoholic beverage whilesubstantially maintaining the initial proportion of native ethanol andwater therein in which substantially any predetermined desiredconcentration of alcohol and water in an alcoholic beverage is provided,while preserving the flavor, by,(a) providing a membrane having a feedside and a permeate side opposite said feed side, said membrane beingpermeable to ethanol and water; (b) containing said alcoholic beverageagainst said feed side of said membrane; (c) contacting a gas-phaseextraction fluid against said permeate side of said membrane, saidextraction fluid comprising a mixture of ethanol and water vapor in apredetermined ratio capable of arbitrating the pervaporation of saidnative ethanol and water such that a portion of said native ethanol andwater present in said alcoholic beverage passes from said feed side ofsaid membrane to said permeate side of said membrane, at an ethanol fluxto water flux ratio corresponding to the molar ratio of ethanol to waterin said alcoholic beverage and mixes with said extraction fluid, whilethe proportion of said native ethanol and water retained in saidalcoholic beverage on said feed side of said membrane correspondssubstantially to the initial proportion present in said alcoholicbeverage; and (d) allowing said alcoholic beverage and said extractionfluid to remain in contact with said feed side and said permeate side ofsaid membrane, respectively, for a period of time sufficient to providea second alcoholic beverage on said feed side of said membrane having avolume which has been reduced to the desired level.
 35. The method ofclaim 34 in which said alcoholic beverage comprises analcohol-containing flavor extract.
 36. The method of claim 34 in whichsaid alcoholic beverage comprises an alcohol-containing aroma extract.37. The method of claim 34 in which said alcoholic beverage comprises analcohol-containing color extract.
 38. The method of claim 31, 32 or 34in which said alcoholic beverage is selected from the group consistingof wine, sparkling wine, whisky, brandy, sake, beer or a fermented fruitdrink.
 39. A vapor-arbitrated pervaporation method comprising:selectively reducing the amount of a first volatile component includingan alcohol and water present in an alcoholic beverage having at leasttwo volatile components independent of the permselectivity of a membraneutilized in said method against one or the other of said volatilecomponents comprising providing substantially andy predetermined desiredconcentration of alcohol and water in an alcoholic beverage, whilepreserving the flavor and aroma of the alcoholic beverage, by,(a)providing a membrane having a feed side and a permeate side, saidmembrane being permeable to at least a first volatile component; (b)contacting an alcoholic beverage containing said first volatilecomponent and at least a second volatile component against said feedside of said membrane; (c) contacting a gas-phase extraction fluidagainst said permeate side of said membrane, said extraction fluidcomprising a mixture of a carrier gas and a sufficient amount of thevapor of said second volatile component such that a portion of saidfirst volatile component passes from the feed side of said membrane tothe permeate side of said membrane and mixes with said extractionfluid,while a substantial portion of said second volatile component isretained on the feed side of said membrane; and (d) allowing saidalcoholic beverage and said extraction fluid to remain in contact withthe feed and permeate sides of said membrane, respectively, for a periodof time sufficient to reduce the amount of said first volatile componentin said alcoholic beverage to the desired level.
 40. The method of claim39 in which said carrier gas comprises a gas which does not condense toa significant degree under conditions which are sufficient to condensethe volatile components of interest in said alcoholic beverage.